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LARGE TYPE BORDER F. DITTO IV

WAVE RLE Y NOVELS

TWENTY-FOUR VOLUMES
VOLUME VIII

The Introductory Essays and Notes
by Andrew Lang to this Edition of
the Waverley Novels are Copyright

LI A-V A.NU I lib MAblLK. -I'-uuilJ ;j >■■'}■ U. M. .. -. 1-

THE

Bride of Lammermoor

SIR WALTER SCOTT, Bart„

JVITH JNTRODUCTOKY ESSJY JND NOTES
By ANDREW LANG

EIGHT ILLUSTRATIONS

ABBOTSFORD

^0 nil on
MAC MILL AN AND CO., Limited

NEW YORK : THE MACMII.I.AN COMI'ANY
1904

^// right i Jcse>~ci{

TO

Zhc lking'6 /llbost Oracious iHbajcstg.

Sire,

The Author of this Collection of Works of Fiction would
not have presumed to solicit for them your Majesty's august patron-
age, were it not that the perusal has been supposed in some instatues
to have succeeded in amusing hours of relaxation, or relieving those
of languor, paitt, or anxiety, and therefore must have so far aided the
warmest wish of your Majesty's heart, by contributing in however
small a degree to the happiness of your people.

They are therefore humbly dedicated to your Majesty, agreeably
to your gracious permission, by

Your Majesty's Dutiful Subject,

WALTER SCOTT.

Abfotsford,

is! January, iSzg.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Lucy and the Master. Painted by Sir J. E. Millais,

Bart., R.A. (^i. 264) Frontispiece

Ravenswood Castle. Painted by John Smart, R.S.A.

To face page 1 6

Wolf's Crag. Painted by Sam Bough, R.S.A. . . 96

Caleb Balderston's Euse. Painted by George Hay,

R.S.A 160

Henry Ashton and the Master. Drawn by H.

Macbeth-Raeburn ........ 240

The Apparition. Drawn by H. Macbeth-Raeburn . 320

The Broken Contract. Drawn by H. Macbeth-
Raeburn 416

Lucy's Madness. Drawn by H. Macbeth-Raeburn . 432

TALES OF ]\IY LANDLORD.

THIRD SERIES.

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR.

Hear, Land o' Cakes and brither Sects,
Frae Maidenkirk to Johnny Groat's,
If there 's a hole in a' your coats,

I rede ye tent it ;
A chiel's aniang you takin' notes,

An' faith he '11 prent it !

Burns.

Ahora bien, dijo el Cura ; traedme, senor huisptd, aguesos libra,
que los quiero ver. Que me place, respond id el ; y entrando en su
af'oscn/o, sacd ddl una male f ilia vieja cerrada con una duienilla, y
abritSndola, halld en ella Ires librns ^7-andes y unos papelcs de muy
: u: la letra escritc: de mano. — DoN QUIXOTE, Parte I. C.apitulo 32.

It is mighty well, saij the priest ; pray, landlord, bring me those
books, for I have a mind to see them. With all my heart, answereu
tlie host ; and going to his chamber, he brought out a little old
cloke-bag, with a padlock and chain to it, and opening it, he took
out three large volumes, an ' • .u- iiianuscnpl pap)crs written in a
<ine character. — J.\KVis's Tr'arisHi'ioi

EDITOE'S INTEODUCTION"

THE "BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOE.

F'ew thinf^s in the history of litorature are better
known than the tale of the composition of ''The
Bride of Lammermoor." "Fredericus I. in tormen-
tis pinxit," the ancestor of Frederick the Great wrote
on a portrait which this royal amateur worked at when
he had the gout. "Gualterus Scotus in tormentis
scripsit " might have been the motto, as Scott him-
self remarked,^ of ''The Bride of Lammermoor" and
"Ivanhoe." These novels were composed amid spasms
of a pain so severe that Hogg declares he has seen
Scott's shirt "burned to an izel " by hot applications,
to which the patient was insensible, so severe was his
pain. "Now if I had given way to mere feeling,"
said Scott to Mr. Gillies, "and ceased to work, it is
a question whether the disease might not have taken
deeper root, and become incurable. The best way is,
if possible, to triumph over disease by setting it at
defiance, somewhat on the same principle as one avoids
being stung by boldly grasping a nettle." His mal-
ady, as it saved him from being interrupted by visi-
tors, practically gave him more leisure for his work.
" During the severe conflict with illness, he scarcely
for one entire day relinquished his literary tasks."

1 Gillies, p. 240.

X EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION TO

Thus among the many great lessons of Scott's life
he taught by example the possibility of overcomiug
pain through courage, and succeeded in doing what
the Stoics vaunted that their ideal Wise Man could
achieve.

"The Heart of IMid-Lothian " had appeared in June
1818. Scott began " The Bride of Lammermoor " in
the autumn of the same year. The subject, taken
from his mother's old tradition, had been in his mind
for some time, and was originally meant to have
appeared in company with "The Heart of !Mid-Loth-
ian." In that case he would probably have treated
the topic briefly, in one volume, like "A Legend of
Montrose." Among his minor works of the same
period was the collection and contribution of materials
towards an edition of Burt's "Letters from the North
of Scotland," undertaken by Mr. Jamieson, the col-
lector of Ballads. Unluckily, Mr. Jamieson's friendly
relations with Scott were afterwards interrupted, and
a correspondence, inscrutably angry on Mr. Jamieson's
side, closed their acquaintance. Throughout the win-
ter. Sir Walter's health was so bad that he occasion-
ally laid " The Bride " aside, and worked at his essays
published in "Provincial Antiquities."* Thio was
purely a labour of love, but when the book proved suc-
cessful Scott did not refuse to accept the beautiful
original drawings by Turner which were engraved for
the volume. In April he was still obliged 1 describe
himself to Southey as "very totterish." Jaundice had
been added to his afflictions. The crises of the tor-
menting malady would last for eight or ten hours : "if
I had not the strength of a team of horses, I could
never have fought through it. " In an unjmblished
letter to Miss Joanna Baillie he describes the anxi-
ety of his dog, Maida, who comforted him by constant
^ '■ Miscellaneous Prose Works," vol. vii.

THE BllIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. xi

attention by his bedside. At last " laudanum became
necessary in the most liberal doses," and possibly this
may explain that extraordinary mental phenomenon
described by Ballantyne, Scott's entire oblivion of
every word and scene in his own new novel. His
Highland piper tried a very old cure out of the
resources of folklore: he selected twelve stones from
twelve southward-running burns, such as the stream
which flows through Glendearg to the Tweed, and
recommended that Scott should sleep on them and be
whole. But Scott explained, bj^ an original addition
to the spell, that the stones must be wrapped in the
petticoat of a widow who had never wished to be mar-
ried again. ^ He still endeavoured to take exercise,
riding out on Sybil Grey "like Death on the pale
horse," but through this miserable April he was still
hard at work on "The Bride." On April 8 he wrote
to Constable saying that he had begun to dictate : the
pain when he applied his breast to the desk was too
great to be endured.

Scott's amanuenses were William Laidlaw and John
Ballantyne. Laidlaw, who lived near Abbotsford, was
on the spot. His hand, if it be his which takes up
the pen where Scott dropped it in the manuscript of
" Keliquice Trotcosienses, " is not that of a very grace-
ful or ready scribe. Indeed, Lockhart remarks on Bal-
lantyne's superior rapidity. According to Lockhart,
John would write without interruption, while Laid-
law's enthusiasm exploded in cries of "Gude keep us
a', — the like o' that!" The Editor has heard from
family tradition that Laidlaw became so much excited
by the story that he would urge Scott to tell on —
*' Go on, Sir "Walter! " — when the author stopped for
a moment to reflect. If disturbing, Laidlaw's observa-
tions were, at least, highly encouraging. Occasionally
' Lockliart, vi. 49.

xii EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION TO

Sir Walter's pangs overcame even his fortitude, and
he would cry out aloud, so that Lockhart once heard
the sounds when walking in the gardens of Abbotsford.
We all know Scott's affectingly humorous remark when
Laidlaw wanted to stop the work during these parox-
ysms. ** Nay, Willie, only see that the doors are fast.
I would fain keep all the cry as well as all the wool to
ourselves; but as to giving over work, that can only be
when I am in the woollen" — a prophecy fulfilled to
the letter. On one occasion he feared that "the mis-
chief was getting at his mind," and, to make trial of
his sanity, turned an old German ballad into Eng-
lish rhyme. The result was the poem of "The Noble
Morringer."

In these circumstances, darkened yet more by the
death of the Duke of Buccleugh, who had been to him
all that a chief and that a friend can be. Sir Walter
finished "The Bride of Lammermoor, " and the accom-
panying tale, " A Legend of Montrose." James Bal-
lantyne drew up a brief memoir before his death, in
which he observes that Scott was not able to rise from
his bed at the time when the books were published
(June 10, 1819). "He assured me that when it was
first put into his hands in a complete shape, he did
not recall one single incident, character, or conver-
sation which it contained! He did not desire me to
understand, nor did I understand, that his illness had
erased from his memory the original incidents of the
story, with which he had been acquainted from his
boyhood. But he remembered nothing else."

As he read his own book he was haunted by the fear
of meeting some passage very glaring and fantastic, but
comforted himself by reflecting that Ballantyne would
not have allowed it to pass. He felt it "monstrous,
gross, and grotesque; but still the worst of it made me
laugh, and i trusted the good-natured public would not

THE BKIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. xiii

be less indulgent." Perhaps the only similar experi-
ence is that spoken of by Mr. Thackeray in his letters
to Mrs. Brookfield. He had a severe illness while
engaged on "Pendennis," and in the book, when
published, he found passages of which he had no recol-
lection. By a curious incident, Sir Walter's illness
during the composition of his novel helped to maintain
his incognito, and shroud his secret. The "Scots Maga-
zine " wrote : "It has long been infallible here that the
Great Unknown, if he is not Walter Scott, must needs
be no other than a certain mighty personage whose
name 'well may we guess but dare not tell.' It seems
pretty evident now that Walter Scott cannot be the
man, if we consider that this distinguished individual
has for a long time past been in a most distressing
and painful state of health, and quite unequal, surely,
to any such vigorous exercise of his powers, unless
he actually be that other personage himself." " Aut
Gualterus aut Diabolus! "

Lockhart describes "The Bride of Lammermoor " as
"to my fancy the most pure and powerful of all the
stories that Scott ever penned." The most noted
politician and the greatest poet of our age are said to
hold it in the same esteem, and to regard it as the
greatest of Sir Walter's novels. Probably the world of
readers does not care for the " unhappy ending," for
which Sir Walter, in his last days, expressed a certain
remorse, but the legend was too strong for him, and he
was obliged to kill Luc}'. " Of all the murders I ever
committed in that way," he said at Rome to Don Luigi
Santa Croce, " and few men have been guilty of more,
there is none that went so much to my heart as the
poor Bride of Lammermoor; but it could not be helped,
it is all true." Thackeray admits that the novel was
no great favourite of his, and that, after one reading, in
boyhood, he never cared to pick up the Master's hat

xiv EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION TO

which he left drifting in the Kelpie's Flow. The
ancient story, which Scott thought was perhaps better
told by his mother in her ten minutes' chat, defies the
optimist, and even Dumas never accepted Thackeray's
invitation to rescue the Master in a smuggling vessel,
carry him to the Low Countries, and start him afresh
on a more fortunate career.

Edgar of Ravenswood, like Charles I., was born with
an unlucky fate, to melancholy fortunes. As to the
historical facts, no research throws any light on the
events concerning which Bucklaw kept silence. There
is, however, an interesting letter of William Clerk's
(Darsie Latimer) to Sir Walter, dated September 1,
1829. The Bride was Clerk's great-grand-auut, and in
the ramifications of Scottish genealogy was of kin to
Sir Walter himself. Wigtownshire tradition declared,
according to Clerk, that when the door of the bridal
chamber was forced the window was found to be open.
It was inferred that the rejected lover. Lord Ruther-
ford, had contrived to enter the house, had himself
stabbed the bridegroom, and had made his escape by
the window. The silence of Bucklaw was supposed to
favour this view, but, if the Bucklaw of real life was
like the Bucklaw of fiction, he would not have let
such an outrage pass unpunished. Clerk ends: "It
is but fair to give the unhappy victim — who was by
all accounts a most gentle and feminine creature —
the benefit of an explanation on a doubtful point." '
Great is the loyalty of a true Scot to his aunts!

Admitting the tragic nature of the tale, Scott
naturally sought to enliven it by side-scenes of humour.
Hence came Caleb Balderstone, on whom, as Lockhart
says, "the general opinion was not then, nor do I
believe it ever since has been, very favourable." Scott
admitted that he "might have sprinkled rather too
* Journal, ii. 300.

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. xv

mucli parsley on his chicken," and the part is as-
suredly too much of a "character-part." The devices
of Caleb are frequently reiterated, and are monotonous,
like all practical jokes. An infinitely better relief is
afforded by the genial and manly character of Bucklaw,
a fellow with faults, but still, it may be feared, a
person more sympathetic to Scott than the Master. In
Edgar the novelist was obliged, by the nature of the
case, to put forth his strength on a hero. The Master
of Ravenswood is not like the earlier heroes — a mere
looker on, a mere pivot about whom the action centres
and moves, while he contributes little to the action.
Edgar is compelled by fate to accept his fortunes, not
to flee from them as he had wished and intended to do.
Considered historically, he is, indeed, an interesting
personage. He inherits the blood and the traditions
of a long Scottish line of nobles. Onl}' the student
who has read the ancient criminal trials, or has fol-
lowed the history of the Stuarts and of the Reforma-
tion, knows how fierce, unscrupulous, untamable, how
perfidious, how daring, how reckless of means and in-
satiate of revenge were the Scottish nobles. It is to a
family as high of heart and blood}' of hand as the
Douglases, or Ruthvens, or Hamiltons, that Edgar of
Ravenswood succeeds, inheriting nothing but their pas-
sions, and the sacred duty of vengeance. But times
had altered, law had begun to be a power, and with
changed times had come a changed type of character.
Thus the Master is somewhat in the position of Hamlet
— he cannot shoot or stab Sir William Ashton, as any
one of his ancestors would have done, or procured to
be done, with no more scruple than he would have felt
in trampling on an adder. " His mortal foe was under
his roof, yet his sentiments towards him were neither
those of a feudal enemy nor of a true Christian. He
felt as if he could neither forgive him in the one

xvi EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION TO

character, nor follow forth his vengeance in the other,
but that he was making a base and dishonourable com-
position between his resentment against the father and
his affection for his daughter." Then this Hamlet
finds his Ophelia — for Lucj, in her soft and fragile
beauty, her dutifulness to parental authority, and her
final madness, corresponds to Ophelia with some close-
ness. The position and training of the Master made
inevitable, perhaps, the ferocity, as it seems to modern
readers, of his behaviour in the scene when the
betrothal is solemnly disavowed. But this relapse
into ancestral instincts is allowed to pass away, and
he is but a broken-hearted man, who rides out to
his last duel, and never reaches the ground. The
modern world, the new times, have done their work —
they have broken a high heart, '''and there is the
end of an auld sang."

Such is the traged}' — a fate worthy of Shakspeare'a
handling, a series of sorrows that lie somewhat off the
path of Sir Walter's genial and buoj-ant nature. His
wholesome character shrank from " problems," af they
are now called, and he seldom cared to consider too curi-
ously, to glance beyond the bounds of what is known
and permitted, to scale the unapproachable heights,
to fathom the unexplored deeps of human personality.
Edgar muses but little on the ultimate riddles of life,
even when, like Kamlet, he has his interview with the
Gravedigger — the Gravedigger who, unlike his crea-
tor, "hated fords at a' times." In brief, Edgar does
not soliloquise enough for the modern taste in the
gloomy and the fatefully perplexed; as usual, Scott
lets his story tell itself in action. It was not his
habit to rejoice in un beau tenehreux, yet that is
the role which circumstances thrust on the Master of
Ravenswood. Hence it may be that Scott did not
wholly give his heart to his own creation, whom

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. xvii

another miglit have made, if not a Hamlet, at least
a Ren6. How eloquently would Edgar, or the moralis-
ing author, have arraigned, in a modern novel, the
government of the universe! But that kind of writ-
ing was uncongenial to Scott. "I have been, perhaps,
the most voluminous writer of m}'^ day," he said at
Home, "I am fast shuffling off the stage. But it is a
comfort to me to think that I have tried to unsettle no
man's faith, to corrupt no man's principle, and that I
have written nothing which on my death-bed I should
wish to blot." His genius did not strive to soar
where Shakspeare's soars in "Hamlet''; he respected
the veil that shrouds the Sphinx, he made no guesses
at her riddle, he urged no reproaches against the Judge
of the Earth. The character and fortunes of the Mas-
ter gave him every opportunity, but, whether we
blame or praise him for it, there was here no tempta-
tion to Walter Scott. " The musings of young Ravens-
wood were deep," but they were also "unwitnessed."
Unwitnessed, unspoken, they remain. Scott antici-
pates Mr. Carlyle's advice about "consuming our own
smoke," the smoke of ill savour that flies up like an
evil and unavailing sacrifice, from the fierce and vain
resentments of the heart, to the disdainful heavens.

The absence of all this indignant curiosity about
the ruling of our fortunes does not make the tragedy
less tragic, does not deprive it of the terror that lives
in fates inherited by no guilt of the sufferer, but re-
moves it far from the modern temper. Remote, too,
from emancipated readers may be the simple endurance
of the poor bride of Lammermoor. She too is placed in
the tragic conflict between two duties — her duty to her
own heart and her lover, and that owed to her mother.
Lady Ashton spares no influence, either of maternal
authority, of religion in the person of the Minister,
or even of black magic. " Acheronta movebo " is

xviii EDlTUKli INTRODUCTION TO

her motto, when she places the malignant hag by
Lucy's side. The manners of the time were favourable
to this abuse of the patria liotestas. Had Lucy pos-
sessed the noble courage and endurance of Clarissa
Harlowe, even then she might have succumbed to the
devices of her mother, and might have brought, on a
fancy compelled into superstition, the curse of the
Broken Vow. Gentle, shrinking, and feminine she is,
and so may be reckoned tame by the heroines of a new
age. But even an armed and iron maidenhood might
have been paralysed by the vast resources arrayed
against it, and where Lucy failed we cannot be certain
that Di Vernon would have triumphed.

In one part of the construction "The Bride of Lam-
mermoor " attains an almost epical grandeur. The
gradual darkening of the evil omens as the storm gath-
ers above the fated lovers is in the manner of Homer,
and of such Homeric Northern sagas as the **Xjala."
Probablj' Scott liad no thought of these in his mind,
nor any idea of imitating them. But his genius was
akin to that of the early world, and though he never
let superstition stand in his way, as he said when at
Rome, he was capable of feeling and communicating
the superstitious thrill, that unreasonable, natural emo-
tion which we inherit from the older world. Just as,
in the Odyssey, all omens point to one end, from the
prophecy of Mentor to the vision of the second-sighted
man, and the portentous word uttered by the woman
grinding at the mill, so it is also in "The Bride of
Lammermoor. " Lucy first draws breath after her
swoon on the unhai)py spot which is fatal to the
Ravenswoods, beside the haunted well. The raven,
the sacred bird of the race, is slain at Edgar's feet by
Henry Ashton. Old Alice, when the lovers visit her,
utters the foreboding pi'ayer ''God help them both!"
Ravenswood, wIk-u driven from his paternal home by

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. xlx

Lady Ashton, meets these weird women, An:iie Winnie
and Ailsie Gourlay, and awakes the Sybil's prophecy
that "dead-deal will never be laid on his back, make
your market o' that, for I hae it frae a sure hand."
He has already seen the wraith of the blind old Alice,
a phantasm beheld at the moment of her death, when,
as a considerable body of evidence suggests, the living
are occasionally impressed as it were with the presence
of the dying. These appearances we may explain as
we will, they may be mere coincident hallucinations,
but few who have beheld them care to repeat the expe-
rience. Of all Scott's many dealings with the super-
natural, this is perhaps the most impressive. It does
not strain belief, for, by whatever law of association or
fancy or the like these sensations are felt, felt they as-
suredly are. Nor is the vision made too explicit, nor
the wraith too purposeful. "The singularity of her
dress, which rather resembled a shroud than the gar-
ment of a living woman, the appearance of her person,
larger, as it struck him, than it usually seemed to be,
above all the strange circumstance of a blind, infirm,
and decrepit person being found alone and at a distance
from her habitation, combined to impress him with
wonder and fear." "Strange thoughts and confused
apprehensions " such an experience may well awaken,
especially when, as in this case, by a happy touch,
Eavenswood finds his horse "sweating and terrified,"
like Scott's own Fenella when he met the unexplained
appearance on the moor near Ashiestiel. Then comes
the saying of the Sibyl, as Lucy, with her death-cold
hand, rides to her bridal. "I tell ye her winding
sheet is up as high as her throat already, believe it
wha list. Her sand has but few grains to rin out, and
nae wonder — thej^'ve been weel shaken." Finally we
reach Caleb's harping on the "auld sang" with which
all ends —

M EDITOR'S INTKODUCTION TO

When the last Laird of Ravenswood to Raveuswood shall ride.
And woo a dead maiden to he his bride,
He shall stable his steed in the Kelpie's flow.
And his name shall be lost for evermoe.

Of all Scott's contributions to demonology, these fig-
ures of the hags, embittered by black poverty, old age,
and neglect, and clinging to that one shred of power in
the world which superstition gave them, is the most
powerful and the most interjjretative. From a thousand
trials for witchcraft he has expressed the essence, and,
considering his witches, we hold the secret of their mys-
tery. Joanna Baillie writes to him: "Though I do
not wish to dwell on this subject, there is one scene be-
tween the old hags, as they are preparing to straught
the corpse, which struck me as fearfully natural and origi-
nal. I would pray IMr. Cleishbotham to give me a tale
to be called ' The Witch. ' . . . I can see, in the scene
just mentioned, a metaphysical view of the subject, glim-
mering through the infernal dialogue of the hags, their
own malevolence and envy connecting them in their
own imaginations with the Devil." On this ground we
may not dare to saj' that Scott has vanquished Shak-
speare, but he has equalled him. The Witches of !Mac-
beth are witches of poetry; those of Scott are '* realis-
tic," as it were. Such were the witches historically and
in fact, children of social wrongs, children of darkness.

No characters in "The Bride of Lammermoor" can
well be called •' minor," for, except the caricatured form
of old Caleb, all live and are true. From the Marquis
of A.,^ the cautious intriguer in high places, to Craigen-
gelt, that copper captain for whose maintenance the
good nature of Scott so characteristically provides, all
live and move. The old sexton whom the Marquis

1 It has been snj^gested that Athol is meant. He writes from
"B." — that is, Blair. Much learning is bestowed on these identi-
fications in Chambers's " Illustrations of the Author of Waverley."

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. sxi

meets in the graveyard is a little masterpiece. His ac-
count of the battle of Bothwell Bridge is a wonderfully
veracious picture, from the point of view of the ordinary
man, no hero, with his heart engaged neither for Cove-
nanter nor Cavalier. The bo}', Henry Ashton, is one of
Scott's curiously rare portraits of boys. Why did he
draw them so seldom? The natural selfishness of youth,
the love of sport, the affection, the disposition to tease,
are drawn with the hand of a master who, like Shak-
speare, did not often use his hand to delineate the hu-
mours of boyhood. We may not hold, with Lady Louisa
Stuart, that the Master " is the best of Scott's lovers,"
for Eoland Graeme, yet unborn when Lady Louisa wrote,
probably holds that place. The world, according to
Mr. Ruskin, " has foolishly praised the horrors of Rav-
enswood ; " he blames the novel for *' prevailing mel-
ancholy and fantastic improbability." Granting the
omens as characteristic of the age, it is not plain where
the improbability of this *'ower true tale " is to be dis-
covered, nor, granting the historical topic, is the melan-
choly overcharged. This immortal tragedy is the work,
according to a criticism in itself sufficiently fantastic,
of a man " blinded and stultified by sickness," blinded
and stultified, too, when he conceived and drew Dugald
Dalgetty! But it is idle to dwell on such an objection,
which, as Joanna Baillie remarked about the hags, is
''frightfully original."

Contemporary criticism said little about ''The Bride
of Lammermoor " which is not obvious. The "Edin-
burgh Eeview " observed: '"The Bride of Lammer-
moor ' is more sketchy and romantic than the usual vein
of the author, and loses, perhaps, in the exaggeration that
is incident to that stj-le, some of the deep and heartfelt
interest that belongs to more familiar situations. The
humours of Caleb Balderstone are to our taste the least
successful of this author's attempts at pleasantry, and

xxii EDITOR'S INTKODUCTIOX TO

belong rather to the school of French or Italian buf-
fooner}' than to that of English humour; and yet, to give
scope to these farcical exhibitions, the poverty of the
Master of Ravenswood is exaggerated beyond all credi-
bility, and to the injury even of his personal dignity.
Sir W. Ashton is tedious, and Bucklaw and his captain,
though excellently drawn, take up rather too much room
for subordinate agents. There are splendid things,
however, in this work also. The picture of old Ailie is
exquisite — and beyond the reach of any other living
writer. The hags that converse in the churchj-ard have
all the terror and sublimity and more than the nature
of Macbeth's witches; and the courtship at the Mer-
maiden's Well, as well as some of the immediately pre-
ceding scenes, are full of dignity and beauty: the catas-
trophe of the Bride, though it may be founded on fact,
is too horrible for fiction. But that of Eavenswood is
magnificent, and, taken along with the prediction which
it was doomed to fulfil, and the mourning and death of
Balderstone, is one of the finest combinations of super-
stition and sadness which the gloomy genius of our fic-
tion has ever put together."

''Blackwood" said: "But of all the novels of our
author there is no one which has a catastrophe so com-
plete and which shakes the mind so strongly as that of
' The Bride of Lammermoor.' It is the only true romance
of the whole set, in purpose, tenor, and conclusion it is
a pure and magnificent tragical romance. From begin-
ning to end the interest is fixed intensely upon the for-
tunes of two individuals, on whom, although they are
often surrounded by ludicrous characters and ludicrous
incidents, and although the narrative that develops their
fate be often written in a tone that at first sight might
appear rather too merrj', wlien viewed in relation to the
final issue, there hangs all along a deep and pensive
shadow which separates them from all that is about

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. xxiii

them, and marks them out as the chosen and vindicated
victims of a terrible destiny. . . . From the moment
that Lady Ashton appears, the interest of the piece hur-
ries on from one tragic scene to another, with a rapidity
and power which we do not think have been equalled in
any of the predecessors of this novel. She seems, by
the first glance of her eye, to wither the whole resolu-
tion of her husband, . . . The use of Scottish supersti-
tions in this tale is indeed managed with very singular
skill, and in a way, too, of which no example had hith-
erto been afforded by the author. . . . There is, per-
haps, more poetry, and that of the finest kind, in the
last two or three scenes of this novel, than any similar
number of pages, written by this author, ever con-
tained. . . . The chief source of the comic interest in
the piece is the character of Caleb Balderstone. ... It
is probable that the generality of readers will think
Caleb's inventions are too much dwelt upon, and that
the joke is pursued till its interest is exhausted."

The critique of the " Quarterly Review " ran thus : " It
is a tragedy of the highest order. . . . Although there
is no deficiency of faults in Eavenswood, it is perhaps
a blemish that his faults are so remotely connected with
his misfortunes. They set in motion, it is true, the
train of causes on which his misery and his death ulti-
mately depend. ... As a character he is excellent,
admirably drawn and admirably grouped and contrasted
with those around him. . . . The engagement between
the lovers is beautifully managed. . . . The three hags
are a bold, we had almost said a not unequal, rivalry of
the Weird Sisters. Their professional praise of Ravens-
wood is whimsically horrible. . . . We wish Ailsie
Gourlay's prediction had been omitted. . . . But Caleb
is a more serious blemish. Of all our author's fools
and bores, and we acknowledge we dislike the whole
irace of them, from Monkbarns down to the Euphuist,

xxiv EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION.

he is the most pertinacious, tlie most intrusive, and,
from the nature of his one monotonous note, the least
pardonable in his intrusion. His silly buffoonerj is
always marring, with gross absurdities and degrading
associations, some scene of tenderness or dignity. . . .
We must not quit 'The Bride of Lammermoor ' without
remarking its deviation from the usual management of
a narrative. The fatal nature of the catastrophe is
vaguely indicated in the very beginning; at every rest in
the story it is more and more pointedly designated; and
long before the conclusion we are aware of the place and
means of its accomjjlishment. "

A^'DKEW Laxo.

March 1893.

INTRODUCTION"

TO

THE BEIDE OF LAMMEEMOOE

(1830).

The author, on a former occasion,^ declined giving the
real source from whicli he drew the tragic subject of
this history, because, though occurring at a distant
period, it might possibly be unpleasing to the feelings
of the descendants of the parties. But as he finds an
account of the circumstances given in the Notes to
Law's Memorials ^(a),^ by his ingenious friend Charles
Kirkpatrick Sharpe, Esq., and also indicated in his re-
print of the Rev. Mr. Symson's poems, appended to the
Description of Galloway, as the original of the Bride of
Lammermoor, the author feels himself now at liberty to
tell the tale as he had it from connexions of his own, who
lived very near the period, and were closely related to
tliQ family of the Bride.

It is well known that the family of Dalrymple, which
lias produced, within the space of two centuries, as many
men of talent, civil and military, and of literary, poli-
tical, and professional eminence, as any house in Scot-
land, first rose into distinction in the person of James

1 See Introduction to the Chronicles of the Canongate.

2 Law'3 Memorials, 4to, 1818, p. 22G.

' See Editor's Notes at the eml of tlie Voliimo. Wherever a
similar reference occurs, the reader will understand that the same
direction applies.

xxvi INTRODUCTION TO

Dalrymple, one of the most eminent lawyers that ever
lived, tliough. the labours of his powerful mind were
unhappily exercised on a subject so limited as Scottish
Jurisprudence, on which he has composed an admirable
work.

He married Margaret, daughter to Eoss of Balniel,
with whom he obtained a considerable estate. She was
an able, politic, and high-minded woman, so successful
in what she undertook, that the vulgar, no way partial
to her husband or her famil}', imputed her success to
necromancy. According to the popular belief, this
Dame Margaret purchased the temporal prosperity of
her family from the Master whom she served, under a
singular condition, which is thus narrated by the his-
torian of her grandson, the great Earl of Stair, "She
lived to a great age, and at her death desired that she
might not be put under ground, but that her coffin
should be placed upright on one end of it, promising,
that while she remained in that situation, the Dalrym-
ples should continue in prosperity. "What was the old
lady's motive for such a request, or whether she really
made such a promise, I cannot take upon me to deter-
mine; but it is certain her coffin stands upright in the
aisle of the church of Kirkliston, the burial place of
the family."^ The talents of this accomplished race
were sufficient to have accounted for the dignities
which man}' members of the family attained, without
any supernatural assistance. But their extraordinary
prosperity was attended by some equally singular family
misfortunes, of which that which befell their eldest
daughter was at once unaccountable and melancholy.

Miss Janet Dalrymple, daughter of the first Lord
Stair and Dame Margaret Ross, had engaged herself
without the knowledge of her parents to the Lord

' Memoirs of John Earl of Stair, hy an Impartial Hand. Loudon,
printed for C. Cobbet, p. 7.

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOK. xxvii

Kutberford, who was not acceptable to tbem eitber on
account of bis political principles, or bis want of for-
tune. Tbe young couple broke a piece of gold together,
and pledged tbeir troth in tbe most solemn manner; and
it is said tbe young lady imprecated dreadful evils on
herself should she break her plighted faith. Shortly
after, a suitor who was favoured by Lord Stair, and still
more so by his lady, paid his addresses to Miss Dal-
rymple. The young lady refused the proposal, and
being pressed on the subject, confessed her secret en-
gagement. Lady Stair, a woman accustomed to univer-
sal submission, (for even her husband did not dare to
contradict her,) treated this objection as a trifle, and
insisted upon her daughter yielding her consent to
marry the new suitor, David Dunbar, son and heir to
David Dunbar of Baldoon, in Wigtonsbire. The first
lover, a man of very high spirit, then interfered by
letter, and insisted on the right he had acquired by his
troth plighted with the young lady. Lady Stair sent
him for answer, that her daughter, sensible of her un-
dutiful behaviour in entering into a contract unsanc-
tioned by her parents, had retracted her unlawful vow,
and now refused to fulfil her engagement with him.

The lover, in return, declined positively to receive
such an answer from any one but his mistress in person;
and as she had to deal with a man who was both of a
most determined character, and of too high condition
to be trifled with. Lady Stair was obliged to consent to
an interview between Lord Rutherford and her daugh-
ter. But she took care to be present in person, and
argued the point with the disappointed and incensed
lover with pertinacity equal to his own. She particu-
larly insisted on the Levitical law, which declares, that
a woman shall be free of a vow which her parents dissent
from. This is the passage of Scripture she founded

xxviii INTRODUCTION TO

" If a man vow a vow unto the Lord, or swear an oath to
bind his soul with a bond ; he shall not break his word, he
shall do according to all that proceeduth out of his mouth.

" If a woman also vow a vow unto the Lord, and bind her-
self by a bond, being in her father's house in her youth ;

" And her father hear her vow, and her bond wherewith
she hath bound her soul, and her father shall hold his peace
at her : then all her vows shall stand, and every bond where-
with she hath bound her soul shall stand.

" But if her father disallow her in the day that he heareth ;
not any of her vows, or of her bonds wherewith she hath bound
her soul, shall stand : and the Lord shall forgive her, because
her father disallowed her." ^

While the mother insisted on these topics, the lover
in vain conjured the daughter to declare her own opin-
ion and feelings. She remained totally overwhelmed,
as it seemed, — mute, pale, and motionless as a statue.
Only at her mother's command, sternly uttered, she
summoned strength enough to restore to her plighted
suitor the piece of broken gold, which was the emblem
of her troth. On this he burst forth into a tremendous
passion, took leave of the mother with maledictions, and
as he left the apartment, turned back to say to his weak,
if not fickle mistress, " For you, madam, you will be a
world's wonder; " a phrase by which some remarkable
degree of calamity is usually implied. He went abroad,
and returned not again. If the last Lord Eutherford
was the unfortunate party, he must have been the third
who bore that title, and who died in 1685.

The marriage betwixt Janet Dalrymple and David
Dunbar of Baldoon now went forward, the bride show-
ing no repugnance, but being absolutely passive in
every thing her motlier commanded or advised. On
the day of the marriage, which, as was then usual, was
celebrated by a great assemblage of friends and rela-
tions, she was the same — sad, silent, and resigned, as
^ >iumbers, xxx. 2, 3, 4, 5.

THE BRIDE OE LAMMERMOOR. xxix

it seemed, to her destiny. A lady, very nearly con-
nected with the family, told the author that she had
conversed on the subject with one of the brothers of the
bride, a mere lad at the time, who had ridden before
his sister to church. He said her hand, which lay on
his as she held her arm round his waist, was as cold
and damp as marble. But, full of his new dress, and
the part he acted in the procession, the circumstance,
which he long afterwards remembered with bitter sorrow
and compunction, made no impression on him at the time.

The bridal feast was followed by dancing; the bride
and bridegroom retired as usual, when of a sudden the
most wild and piercing cries were heard from the nuptial
chamber. It was then the custom, to prevent any coarse
pleasantry which old times perhaps admitted, that the
key of the nuptial chamber should be intrusted to the
brideman. He was called upon, but refused at first to
give it up, till the shrieks became so hideous that he
was compelled to hasten with others to learn the cause.
On opening the door, they found the bridegroom lying
across the threshold, dreadfully wounded, and stream-
ing with blood. The bride was then sought for : She
was found in the corner of the large chimney, having
no covering save her shift, and that dabbled in gore.
There she sat grinning at them, mopping and mowing,
as I heard the expression used; in a word, absolutely
insane. The only words she spoke were, '' Tak up your
bonny bridegroom." She survived this horrible scene
little more than a fortnight, having been married on
the 24th of August, and dying on the 12th of September
1669.

The unfortunate Baldoon recovered from his wounds,
but sternly prohibited all enquiries respecting the man-
ner in which he had received them. If a lady, he said,
asked him any question upon the subject, he would
neither answer her nor speak to her again while he

XXX INTRODUCTION TO

lived; if a gentleman, he would consider it as a mortal
affront, and demand satisfaction as having received such.
He did not very long survive the dreadful catastrophe,
having met with a fatal injury hy a fall from his horse,
as he rode between Leith and Hol3-rood-house, of which
he died the next day, 28th March 1682. Thus a few
years removed all the principal actors in this frightful
tragedy.

Various reports went abroad on this mysterious
affair, many of them very inaccurate, though they
could hardly be said to be exaggerated. It was diffi-
cult at that time to become acquainted with the history
of a Scottish family above the lower rank ; and strange
things sometimes took place there, into which even
the law did not scrupulously enquire.

The credulous Mr. Law says, generally, that the
Lord President Stair had a daughter, who "being
married, the night she was bride in, [that is, bedded
bride,] was taken from her bridegroom and harled
[dragged] through the house, (by spirits, we are given
to understand,) and soon afterwards died. Another
daughter," he says, "was possessed by an evil
spirit."

My friend, Mr. Sharpe, gives another edition of the
tale. According to his information, it was the bride-
groom who wounded the bride. The marriage, accord-
ing to this account, had been against her mother's
inclination, who had given her consent in these
ominous words: "You may marry him, but soon shall
you repent it."

I find still another account darkly insinuated in
some highly scurrilous and abusive verses, of which I
have an original cop}'. They are docketed as being
written " Upon the late Viscount Stair and his family,
by Sir "William Hamilton of "Whitelaw. The mar-
ginals by William Dunlop, writer in Edinburgh, a sou

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. xxxi

of the Laird of Househill, and nephew to the said Sir
William Hamilton." There was a bitter and personal
quarrel and rivalry betwixt the author of this libel, a
name which it richly deserves, and Lord President
Stair; and the lampoon, which is written with much
more malice than art, bears the following motto: —

Stair's neck, mind, wife, sons, grandson, and the rest,
Are wry, false, witch, pests, parricide, possessed.

This malignant satirist, who calls up all the mis-
fortunes of the family, does not forget the fatal bridal
of Baldoon. He seems, though his verses are as
obscure as unpoetical, to intimate, that the violence
done to the bridegroom was by the intervention of the
foul fiend to whom the young lady had resigned her-
self, in case she should break her contract with her
first lover. His hypothesis is inconsistent with the
account given in the note upon Law's Memorials, but
easily reconcilable to the family tradition.

In al Stair's offspring we no difference know,

They doe the females as the males bestow ;

So he of's daughter's marriage gave the ward,

Like a true vassal, to Glenluce's Laird ;

He knew what she did to her suitor plight, j

If she her faith to Rutherfurd should slight, ?

"Which, like his own, for greed he broke outright. )

Nick did Baldoon's posterior right deride,

And, as first substitute, did seize the bride;

Whate'er he to his mistress did or said,

He threw the bridegroom from the nuptial bed.

Into the chimney did so his rival maul.

His bruised bones ne'er were cured but by the fall'

One of the marginal notes ascribed to William
Dunlop applies to the above lines. "She had be-
trothed herself to Lord Rutherfoord under horrid im-

1 The fall from his horse, by which he was killed.

xxxii INTRODUCTION TO

precations, and afterwards married Baldoon, his nevoy,
and her mother was the cause of her hreach of faith."
The same tragedy is alluded to in the following
couplet and note : —

What train of curses tliat base brood pursues,
When the young nephew weds old uncle'a s[>onse.

The note on the word riwle explains it as meaning
" Rutherfoord, who should have married the Lady
Baldoon, w^as Baldoon's uncle." The poetry of this
satire on Lord Stair and his family was, as already
noticed, written hy Sir William Hamilton of AMiite-
law, a rival of Lord Stair for the situation of President
of the Court of Session; a person much inferior to that
great lawyer in talents, and equally ill-treated by the
calumny or just satire of his contemporaries, as an
unjust and partial judge. Some of the notes are by
that curious and laborious antiquary Robert Milne,
who, as a virulent Jacobite, willingly lent a hand
to blacken the family of Stair. ^

Another poet of the period, with a very different
purpose, has left an elegy, in which he darkly hints at
and bemoans the fate of the ill-starred young person,
whose very uncommon calamity Whitelaw, Dunlop,
and Milne thought a fitting subject for buffoonery
and ribaldry. This bard of milder mood was Andrew
Symson, before the Revolution minister of Kirkinuer,
in Galloway, and after his expulsion as an Episcopalian,
following the humble occupation of a printer in Edin-
burgh. He furnished the family of Baldoon, with

^ I have compared the satire, which occurs in the first volume of
the curious little collection called a Book of Scottish Pasquils,
1827, with that which has a more full text, and mere extended
notes, and which is in my own possession, by gift of Thomas
Thomson, Esq. Kegister-Depute. In the second Book of Pasquils,
p. 72, is a most abusive epitaph on Sir James Hamilton of
Whitelaw

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. xxxiii

which he appears to have been intimate, with an elegy
on the tragic event in their family. In this piece he
treats the mournful occasion of the bride's death with
mysterious solemnity.

The verses bear this title, "On the unexpected
death of the virtuous Lady Mrs. Janet Dalrymple,
Lady Baldoon, younger," and afford us the precise
dates of the catastrophe, which could not otherwise
have been easily ascertained. "Nupta August 12. Do-
mum Ducta August 24. Obiit September 12. Sepult.
September 30, 1669." The form of the elegy is a
dialogue betwixt a passenger and a domestic servant.
The first, recollecting that he had passed that way
lately, and seen all around enlivened by the appear-
ances of mirth and festivity, is desirous to know what
had changed so gay a scene into mourning. "We pre-
serve the reply of the servant as a specimen of Mr.
Symson's verses, which are not of the first quality : —

Sir, 'tis truth you've told,
We did enjoy great mirth ; but now, ah me !
Onr joyful song's turn'd to au elegie.
A virtuous lady, not long siuce a bride.
Was to a hopeful plant by marriage tied,
And brought home hither. We did all rejoice.
Even for her sake. But presently our voice
Was turn'd to mourniug for that little time
That she'd enjoy : She waned in her prime,
For Atropos, with her impartial knife.
Soon cut her thread, and therewithal her life ;
And for the time we may it well remember.
It being in unfortunate September ;
Where we must leave her till the resurrection,
'Tis then the Saints enjoy their full perfection.'

^ This elegy is reprinted in the appendix to a topographical
work by the same author, entitled " A Large Description of Gallo-
way, by Andrew Symson, Minister of Kirkinner," 8vo, Taits,
Edinburgh, 1823. The reverend gentleman's elegies are ex-
tremely rare, nor did tlie author over see a copy but hia own.

xxxiv INTRODUCTION TO

Mr. Symson also poured forth his elegiac strains
upon the fate of the widowed bridegroom, on which
subject, after a long and querulous effusion, the poet
arrives at the sound conclusion, that if Baldoon bad
walked on foot, which it seems was his general custom,
he would have escaped perishing by a fall from horse-
back. As the work in which it occurs is so scarce as
almost to be unique, and as it gives us the most full
account of one of the actors in this tragic tale which we
have rehearsed, we will, at the risk of being tedious,
insert some short specimens of Mr. Symson's composi-
tion. It is entitled, —

" A Funeral Elegie, occasioned by the sad and much la-
mented death of that worthily respected, and very much ac-
complished gentleman, David Dunbar, younger of Baldoon, only
son and apparent heir to the right worshipful Sir David
Dunbar of Baldoon. Knight Baronet. He departed this life
on March 28, 1682, having received a bruise by a fall, as he
was riding the day preceding betwixt Leith ami Holy-Kood-
House ; and was honourably interred in the Abbey church of
Holy-Rood-House, on A])ril 4, IGS:^."

Men might, and very justly too, conclude

Me guilty of the worst ingratitude,

Should I be silent, or should I forbear

At this sad accident to shed a tear ;

A tear ! said 1 1 ah ! that's a petit thing,

A very lean, slight, slender offering.

Too mean, I'me sure, for me, wherewith t'attend

The unexpected funeral of my friend —

A glass of briny tears charged up to th' brim,

Would be too few for me to shed for him.

The poet proceeds to state his intimacy with the
deceased, and the constancy of the young man's attend-
ance on public worship, which was regular, and had
such effect upon two or three others that were influ-
enced by his example.

which is boimd up with the Trip.-xtriarcliicon, a religious poem
from tlio Biblical History, by the same author.

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. xxxv

So tliat my Muse 'gainst Piiscian avers,
He, only he, were my parishioners ;
Yea, and my only hearers.

He then describes the deceased in person and man-
ners, from which it appears that more accomphshments
were expected in the composition of a fine gentleman in
ancient than modern times :

His body, though not very large or tall,

Was sprightly, active, yea and strong withal.

His constitution was, if right I've guess'd,

Blood mixt with choler, said to be the beat.

In's gesture, converse, speech, discourse, attire.

He practis'd that which wise men still admire.

Commend, and recommend. What's that ? you'l say ;

'Tis this : He ever choos'd the middle way

'Twixt both th' extremes. Amost in ev'ry thing

He did the like, 'tis worth our noticing :

Sparing, yet not a niggard ; liberal,

And yet not lavish or a prodigal.

As knowing when to spend and when to spare ;

And that's a lesson which not many are

Acquainted with. He bashful was, yet daring

When he saw cause, and yet therein but sparing ;

Familiar, yet not common, for he knew

To condescend, and keep his distance too.

He us'd, and that most commonly, to go

On foot ; I wish that he had still done so.

Th' affairs of court were unto him well known :

And yet mean while he slighted not his own.

He knew full well how to behave at court.

And yet but seldome did thereto resort ; •

But lov'd the country life, choos'd to inure

Himself to past'rago and agriculture ;

Proving, improving, ditching, trenching, draining,

Viewing, reviewing, and by those means gaining;

Planting, transplanting, levelling, erecting

Walls, chambers, houses, terraces ; projecting

Now this, now that device, this draught, that measure,

That might advance his profit witli his pleasure.

Quick in his bargains, honest in commerce,

Just in his dealings, being much averse

xxxvi INTRODUCTION TO

From quirks of law, still ready to refer

Plis cause t'an lioiiest country arbiter.

lie was acquainted with cosmography,

Arithmetic, and modern history ;

With architecture and such arts aa these.

Which I may call specifick sciences

Fit for a gentleman ; and surely he

That knows them not, at least in some degree,

May brook the title, but he wants the thing,

Is but a shadow scarce worth noticing.

He learned the French, be't spoken to his praise.

In very little more than fourty days."

Then comes the full burst of woe, in which, in.stead
of saying much himself, the poet informs us what the
ancient.s would have said on such an occasion :

A heathen poet, at the news, no doubt,

AVould have exclaimed, and furiously cry'd out

Against the fates, the destinies and Starrs,

What ! this the effect of planetario warrs !

We might have seen him rage and rave, }ea worse,

'Tis very like we might have heard him curse

The year, the month, tlie day, the hour, the place,

The company, the wager, and the race;

Decry all recreations, with the names

Of Isthmian, Pythian, and Olympick games;

Exclaim again.-;t them all both old and new,

Both the Neraaean and the I/Cthaan too :

Adjudge all persons under liighest pain.

Always to walk on foot, and then again

Order all horses to be hough'd, that we

Might never more the like adventure see.

Supposing our readers have had enough of Mr. Sym-
son's verses, and finding nothing more in his poem
worthy of transcription, we return to the tragic story.

It is needless to point out to tlie intelligent reader,
that the witchcraft of the mother consisted only in the
ascendency of a powerful mind over a weak and melan-
choly one, and that the harshness with which she exer-
cised her superiority in a case of delicacy, had driven

THE BRIDE OE LAMMERMOOR. xxxvii

her daughter first to despair, then to frenzy. Accord-
ingly, the author has endeavoured to explain the tragic
tale on this principle. Whatever resemblance Lady
Ashton may be supposed to possess to the celebrated
Dame Margaret Ross, the reader must not sujjpose that
there was any idea of tracing the portrait of the first
Lord Viscount Stair in the tricky and mean-spirited
Sir William Ashton. Lord Stair, whatever might be
his moral qualities, was certainly one of the first states-
men and lawyers of his age.

The imaginary castle of Wolf's Crag has been iden-
tified by some lover of locality with that of Fast Castle.
The author is not competent to judge of the resemblance
betwixt the real and imaginary scene, having never seen
Fast Castle except from the sea. But fortalices of this
description are found occupjnng, like ospreys' nests,
projecting rocks, or promontories, in many parts of
the eastern coast of Scotland, and the position of Fast
Castle seems certainly to resemble that of Wolf's Crag
as much as an}' other, while its vicinity to the mountain
ridge of Lammermoor renders the assimilation a prob-
able one.

We have only to add, that the death of the unfortu-
nate bridegroom b}^ a fall from horseback, has been in
the novel transferred to the no less unfortunate lover.

THE

BEIDE OF LAMMEEMOOE.

CHAPTER I.

By cauk and keel to win your bread,
Wi' whigmaleeries for them wha need,
Whilk is a gentle trade indeed

To carry the gaberlunzie on.

Old Song.

Few have been in my secret while I was compiling
these narratives, nor is it probable that they will
ever become public during the life of their author.
Even were that event to happen, I am not ambitious
of the honoured distinction, digito monstrari. I con-
fess, that, were it safe to cherish such dreams at all,
I should more enjoy the thought of remaining be-
hind the curtain unseen, like the ingenious manager
of Punch and his wife Joan (Jo), and enjoying the as-
tonishment and conjectures of my audience. Then
might I, perchance, hear the productions of the ob-
scure Peter Pattieson praised by the judicious, and
admired by the feeling, engrossing the young, and
attracting even the old ; while the critic traced
their fame up to some name of literary celebrity,
and the cj^uestion when, and by whom, these tales
were written, filled up the pause of conversation in
a hundred circles and coteries. This I may never
1

2 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

enjoy during my lifetime ; but farther than this, I
am certain, my vanity should never induce me to
aspire.

I am too stubborn in habits, and too little polished
in manners, to envy or aspire to the honours as-
signed to my literary contemporaries. I could not
think a whit more highly of myself, were I even
found worthy to " come in place as a lion," for a
winter in the great metropolis. I could not rise,
turn round, and show all my honours, from the
shaggy mane to the tufted tail, roar you an 'twere any
nightingale, and so lie down again like a well-be-
haved beast of show, and all at the cheap and easy
rate of a cup of coffee, and a slice of bread and but-
ter as thin as a wafer. And I could ill stomach
the fulsome flattery with which the lady of the
evening indulges her show-monsters on such occa-
sions, as she crams her parrots with sugar-plums, in
order to make them talk before company. I can-
not be tempted to " come aloft " for these marks of
distinction, and, like imprisoned Samson, I would
rather remain — if such must be the alternative —
all my life in the mill-house, grinding for my very
bread, than be brought forth to make sport for the
Philistine lords and ladies. This proceeds from no
dislike, real or affected, to the aristocracy of these
realms. But they have their place, and I have
mine ; and, like the iron and earthen vessels in the
old fable, we can scarce come into collision without
my being the sufferer in every sense. It may be
otherwise with the sheets which I am now writing.
These may be opened and laid aside at pleasure ; by
amusing themselves with the perusal, the great will
excite no false hopes ; by neglecting or condemning
them, they will inflict no pain ; and how seldom can

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 3

they converse with those whose minds have toiled
for their dehght, without doing either the one or
the other.

In the better and wiser tone of feeling, which
Ovid only expresses in one line to retract in that
which follows, I can address these quires —

Parve, nee invideo, sine me, liber, ibis in urbem.

Nor do I join the regret of the illustrious exile, that
he himself could not in person accompany the vol-
ume, which he sent forth to the mart of literature,
pleasure, and luxury. Were there not a hundred
similar instances on record, the fate of my poor
friend and school-fellow, Dick Tinto, would be suf-
ficient to warn me against seeking happiness, in the
celebrity which attaches itself to a successful culti-
vator of the fine arts.

Dick Tinto, when he wrote himself artist, was
wont to derive his origin from the ancient family of
Tinto, of that ilk, in Lanarkshire, and occasionally
hinted that he had somewhat derogated from his
gentle blood, in using the pencil for his principal
means of support. But if Dick's pedigree was cor-
rect, some of his ancestors must have suffered a more
heavy declension, since the good man his father exe-
cuted the necessary, and, I trust, the honest, but cer-
tainly not very distinguished employment, of tailor
in ordinary to the village of Langdirdum in the
west. Under his humble roof was Richard born, and
to his father's humble trade was Eichard, greatly
contrary to his inclination, early indentured. Old
Mr. Tinto had, however, no reason to congratulate
himself upon having compelled the youthful genius
of his son to forsake its natural bent. He fared like
the schoolboy, who attempts to stop with his finger

4 TALES or MY LA^'DLORD.

the spout of a water cistern, while the stream, ex-
asperated at this compression, escapes by a thousand
uncalculated spirts, and wets him all over for his
pains. Even so fared the senior Tinto, when his
hopeful apprentice not only exhausted all the chalk
in making sketches upon the shopboard, but even
executed several caricatures of his father's best cus-
tomers, wlio began loudly to murmur, that it was
too hard to have their persons deformed by the vest-
ments of the father, and to be at the same time
turned into ridicule by the pencil of the son. This
led to discredit and loss of practice, until the old
tailor, yielding to destiny, and to the entreaties of
his son, permitted him to attempt his fortune in a
line for which he was better qualified.

There was about this time, in the village of Lang-
dirdum, a peripatetic brother of the brush, who ex-
ercised his vocation sub Jove frigido, the object of
admiration to all the boys of the village, but espe-
cially to Dick Tinto. The age had not yet adopted,
amongst other unworthy retrenchments, that illib-
eral measure of economy, which, supplying by writ-
ten characters the lack of symbolical representation,
closes one open and easily accessible avenue of in-
struction and emolument against the students of the
fine arts. It was not yet permitted to write upon the
plastered door-way of an alehouse, or the suspended
sign of an inn, " The Old Magpie," or " The Saracen's
Head," substituting that cold description for the
lively effigies of the plumed chatterer, or the tur-
ban'd frown of the terrific soldan. That early and
more simple age considered alike the necessities of
all ranks, and depicted the symbols of good cheer so
as to be obvious to all capacities ; well judging, that
a man, who could not read a syllable, might never

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 5

theless love a pot of good ale as well as his better-
educated neighbours, or even as the parson himself.
Acting upon this liberal principle, publicans as yet
hung forth the painted emblems of their calling,
and sign-painters, if they seldom feasted, did not at
least absolutely starve.

To a worthy of this decayed profession, as we
have already intimated, Dick Tinto became an
assistant ; and thus, as is not unusual among
heaven-born geniuses in this department of the fine
arts, began to paint before he had any notion of
drawing.

His talent for observing nature soon induced
him to rectify the errors, and soar above the in-
structions, of his teacher. He particularly shone
in painting horses, that being a favourite sign in
the Scottish villages; and, in tracing his progress,
it is beautiful to observe, how by degrees he learned
to shorten the backs, and prolong the legs, of these
noble animals, until they came to look less like
crocodiles, and more like nags. Detraction, which
always pursues merit with strides proportioned
to its advancement, has indeed alleged, that Dick
once upon a time painted a horse with five legs,
instead of four. I might have rested his defence
upon the license allowed to that branch of his
profession, which, as it permits all sorts of singular
and irregular combinations, may be allowed to ex-
tend itself so far as to bestow a limb supernumer-
ary on a favourite subject. But the cause of a
deceased friend is sacred ; and I disdain to bottom it
so superficially. I have visited the sign, in question,
which yet swings exalted in the village of Lang-
dirdum ; and I am ready to depone upon oath, that
what has been idly mistaken or misrepresented as

6 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

being the fifth leg of the horse, is, in fact, the tail
of that quadruped, and, considered with reference
to the posture in which he is delineated, forms a
circumstance, introduced and managed with great
and successful, though daring art. The nag being
represented in a rampant or rearing posture, the
tail, which is prolonged till it touches the ground,
appears to form a point d'appui, and gives the firm-
ness of a tripod to the figure, without which it
would be difficult to conceive, placed as the feet
are, how the courser could maintain his ground
without tumbling backwards. This bold conception
has fortunately fallen into the custody of one by
whom it is duly valued ; for, when Dick, in his
more advanced state of proficiency, became dubious
of the propriety of so daring a deviation from the
established rules of art, and was desirous to exe-
cute a picture of the publican himself in ex-
change for this juvenile production, the courteous
offer was declined by his judicious employer,
who had observed, it seems, that when his ale
failed to do its duty in conciliating his guests, one
glance at his sign was sure to put them in good
humour.

It would be foreign to my present purpose to
trace the steps by which Dick Tinto improved his
touch, and corrected, by the rules of art, the luxu-
riance of a fervid imagination. The scales fell from
his eyes on viewing the sketches of a contempo-
rary, the Scottish Teniers, as Wilkie has been de-
servedly styled. He threw down the brush, took
up the crayons, and, amid hunger and toil, and sus-
pense and uncertainty, pursued the path of his
profession under better auspices than those of his
original master. Still the first rude emanations of

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 7

his genius (like the nursery rhymes of Pope, could
these be recovered) will be dear to the companions
of Dick Tinto's youth. There is a tankard and
gridiron painted over the door of an ob^^^ure change-
house in the Back-wynd of Gandercleugh — But I
feel I must tear myself from the subject, or dwell
on it too long.

Amid his wants and struCTo-les, Dick Tinto had
recourse, like his brethren, to levying that tax
upon the vanity of mankind which he could not
extract from their taste and liberality — in a word,
he painted portraits. It was in this more advanced
state of proficiency, when Dick had soared above
his original line of business, and highly disdained
any allusion to it, that, after having been estranged
for several years, we again met in the village of
Gandercleugh, I holding my present situation, and
Dick painting copies of the human face divine at a
guinea per head. This was a small premium, yet,
in the first burst of business, it more than sufficed
for all Dick's moderate wants ; so that he occupied
an apartment at the Wallace Inn, cracked his jest
with impunity even upon mine host himself, and
lived in respect and observance with the chamber-
maid, hostler, and waiter.

Those halcyon days were too serene to last long.
When his honour the Laird of Gandercleugh, with
his wife and three daughters, the minister, the
ganger, mine esteemed patron Mr. Jedediah Cleish-
botham, and some round dozen of the feuars and
farmers, had been consigned to immortality by Tin-
to's brush, custom began to slacken, and it was
impossible to wring more than crowns and half-
crowns from the hard hands of the peasants, whose
ambition led them to Dick's painting-room.

8 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

Still, though the horizon was overclouded, no
storm for some time ensued. Mine host had Chris-
tian faith with a lodger, who had been a good pay-
master as long as he had the means. And from a
portrait of our landlord himself, grouped with his
wife and daughters, in the style of Eubens, which
suddenly appeared in the best parlour, it was
evident that Dick had found some mode of barter-
ing art for the necessaries of life.

Nothing, however, is more precarious than re-
sources of this nature. It was observed, that Dick
became in his turn the whetstone of mine host's
wit, without venturing either at defence or retalia-
tion ; that his easel was transferred to a garret-
room, in which there was scarce space for it to
stand upright ; and that he no longer ventured to
join the weekly club, of which he had been once
the life and soul. In short, Dick Tinto's friends
feared that he had acted like the animal called the
sloth, which, having eaten up the last green leaf
upon the tree where it has estabhshed itself, ends
by tumbling down from the top, and dying of
inanition. I ventured to hint this to Dick, rec-
ommended his transferring the exercise of his
inestimable talent to some other sphere, and for-
saking the common which he might be said to
have eaten bare.

" There is an obstacle to my change of residence,"
said my friend, grasping my hand with a look of
solemnity.

" A bill due to my landlord, 1 am afraid ? " re-
plied I, with heartfelt sympathy ; " if any part of
my slender means can assist in this emergence "

" No, by the soul of Sir Joshua ! " answered the
generous youth, " I will never involve a friend in

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 9

the consequences of my own misfortune. There
is a mode by which 1 can regain my liberty ; and
to creep even through a common sewer, is better
than to remain in prison."

I did not perfectly understand w^hat my friend
meant. The muse of painting appeared to have
failed him, and what other goddess he could invoke
in his distress, was a mystery to me. We parted,
however, without further explanation, and I did not
again see him until three days after, when he sum-
moned me to partake of the foy with which his
landlord proposed to regale him ere his departure
for Edinburgh.

I found Dick in high spirits, whistling while he
buckled the small knapsack, which contained his
colours, brushes, pallets, and clean shirt. That he
parted on the best terms with mine host, was obvi-
ous from the cold beef set forth in the . low parlour,
flanked by two mugs of admirable brown stout;
and I own my curiosity was excited concerning the
means through which the face of my friend's affairs
had been so suddenly improved. I did not suspect
Dick of dealing with the devil, and by what earthly
means he had extricated himself thus happily, I
was at a total loss to conjecture.

He perceived my curiosity, and took me by the
hand. " My friend," he said, " fain would I con-
ceal, even from you, the degradation to which it
has been necessary to submit, in order to accom-
plish an honourable retreat from Gandercleugh.
But what avails attempting to conceal that, which
must needs betray itself even by its superior excel-
lence ? All the village — all the parish — all the
world — will soon discover to what poverty has
reduced Eichard Tinto."

lo TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

A sudden thought here struck me — I had ob-
served that our landlord wore, on that memorable
morning, a pair of bran new velveteens, instead of
his ancient thicksets.

"What," said I, drawing my right hand, with
the fore-finger and thumb pressed together, nimbly
from my right haunch to my left shoulder, " you
have condescended to resume the paternal arts
to which you were first bred — long stitches, ha,
Dick ? "

He repelled this unlucky conjecture with a frown
and a pshaw, indicative of indignant contempt, and
leading me into another room, showed me, resting
against the wall, the majestic head of Sir William
Wallace, grim as when severed from the trunk by
the orders of the felon Edward.

The painting was executed on boards of a sub-
stantial thickness, and the top decorated with irons,
for suspending the honoured effigy upon a sign-
post.

" There," he said, " my friend, stands the honour
of Scotland, and my shame — yet not so — rather
the shame of those, who, instead of encouraging art
in its proper sphere, reduce it to these unbecoming
and unworthy extremities."

I endeavoured to smooth the ruffled feelings of
my misused and indignant friend. I reminded
him, that he ought not, like the stag in the fable,
to despise the quality which had extricated him
from difficulties, in which his talents, as a portrait
or landscape painter, had been found unavailing.
Above all, I praised the execution, as well as con-
ception, of his painting, and reminded him, that far
from feeling dishonoured by so superb a specimen
of his talents being exposed to the general view of

THE ERIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. ii

tlie public, he ought rather to congratulate himself
upon the augmentation of his celebrity, to which
its public exhibition must necessarily give rise.

" You are right, my friend — you are right," re-
plied poor Dick, his eye kindling with enthusiasm ;
" why should I shun the name of an — an " — (he
hesitated for a phrase) — " an out-of-doors artist ?
Hogarth has introduced himself in that character
in one of his best engravings — Domenichino, or
somebody else, in ancient times — Morland in our
own, have exercised their talents in this manner.
And wherefore limit to the rich and liigher classes
alone the delight which the exhibition of works of
art is calculated to inspire into all classes ? Statues
are placed in the open air, why should Painting be
more niggardly in displaying her master-pieces than
her sister Sculpture ? And yet, my friend, w^e
must part suddenly ; the carpenter is coming in an
hour to put up the — the emblem ; and truly, with
all my philosophy, and your consolatory encourage-
ment to boot, I would rather wish to leave Gander-
cleugh before that operation commences."

We partook of our genial host's parting banquet,
and I escorted Dick on his walk to Edinburgh.
We parted about a mile from the village, just as we
heard the distant cheer of the boys which accom-
panied the mounting of the new symbol of the
Wallace-Head. Dick Tinto mended his pace to
get out of hearing — so little had either early prac-
tice or recent philosophy reconciled him to the
character of a sign-painter.

In Edinburgh, Dick's talents were discovered
and appreciated, and he received dinners and hints
from several distinguished judges of the fine arts.
But these gentlemen dispensed their criticism more

12 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

willingly than their cash, and Dick thought he
needed cash more than criticism. He therefore
sought London, the universal mart of talent, and
where, as is usual in general marts of most descrip-
tions, much more of each commodity is exposed to
sale than can ever find purchasers.

Dick, who, in serious earnest, was supposed to
have considerable natural talents for his profession,
and whose vain and sanguine disposition never
permitted him to doubt for a moment of ultimate
success, threw himself headlong into the crowd
which jostled and struggled for notice and prefer-
ment. He elbowed others, and was elbowed him-
self ; and finally, by dint of intrepidity, fought his
way into some notice, painted for the prize at the
Institution, had pictures at the exhibition at Somer-
set-house, and damned the hanging committee.
But poor Dick was doomed to lose the field he
fought so gallantly. In the fine arts, there is scarce
an alternative betwixt distinguished success and
absolute failure ; and as Dick's zeal and industry
were unable to ensure the first, he fell into the
distresses which, in his condition, were the natural
consequences of the latter alternative. He was for
a time patronised by one or two of those judicious
persons who make a \nrtue of being singular, and
of pitching their own opinions against those of the
world in matters of taste and criticism. But they
soon tired of poor Tinto, and laid him down as a load,
upon the principle on which a spoilt child throws
away its plaything. IMisery, I fear, took him up,
and accompanied him to a premature grave, to
which he was carried from an obscure lodging in
Swallow-street, where he had been dunned by his
landlady within doors, and watched by bailiffs with-

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 13

out, until death came to his relief. A corner of the
Morning Post noticed his death, generously add-
ing, that his manner displayed considerable genius,
though his style was rather sketchy ; and referi'ed
to an advertisement, which announced that Mr.
Varnish, a well-known printseller, had still on hand
a very few drawings and paintings by Eichard
Tinto, Esquire, which those of the nobility and gen-
try, who might wish to complete their collections
of modern art, were invited to visit without delay.
So ended Dick Tinto ! a lamentable proof of the
great truth, that in the fine arts mediocrity is not
permitted, and that he who cannot ascend to the
very top of the ladder, will do well not to put his
foot upon it at all.

The memory of Tinto is dear to me, from the
recollection of the many conversations which we
have had together, most of them turning upon my
present task. He was delighted with my progress,
and talked of an ornamented and illustrated edition,
with heads, vignettes, and culs cle lampe, all to be
designed by his own patriotic and friendly pencil.
He prevailed upon an old sergeant of invalids to
sit to him in the character of Bothwell, the life-
guard's-man of Charles the Second, and the bell-
man of Gandercleugh in that of David Deans. But
while he thus proposed to unite his own powers
with mine for the illustration of these narratives,
he mixed many a dose of salutary criticism with
the panegyrics which my composition was at times
so fortunate as to call forth.

" Your characters," he said, " my dear Pattieson,
make too much use of the gob box ; they putter too
much — (an elegant phraseology, which Dick had
learned while painting the scenes of an itinerant

14 TALES OP MY LATv^DLORD.

company of players) — there is nothing in whole
pages but mere chit and dialogue."

" The ancient philosopher," said I in reply, " was
wont to say, ' Speak, that I may know thee ; ' and
how is it possible for an author to introduce his
personce dramatis to his readers in a more interest-
ing and effectual manner, than by the dialogue in
which each is represented as supporting his own
appropriate character ? "

" It is a false conclusion," said Tinto ; " I hate
it, Peter, as I hate an unfilled cann. I will grant
you, indeed, that speech is a faculty of some value
in the intercourse of human affairs, and I will not
even insist on the doctrine of that Pythagorean
toper, who was of opinion, that over a bottle speak-
ing spoiled conversation. But I will not allow that
a professor of the fine arts has occasion to embody
the idea of his scene in language, in order to im-
press upon the reader its reality and its effect. On
the contrary, I will be judged by most of your
readers, Peter, should these tales ever become
public, whether you have not given us a page of
talk for every single idea which two words might
have communicated, while the posture, and manner,
and incident, accurately drawn, and brought out by
appropriate colouring, would have preserved all that
was worthy of preservation, and saved these ever-
lasting said he's and said she's, with which it has
been your pleasure to encumber your pages."

I replied, " that he confounded the operations
of the pencil and the pen ; that the serene and
silent art, as painting has been called by one of our
first living poets, necessarily appealed to the eye,
because it had not the organs for addressing the
ear ; whereas poetry, or that species of composi-

THE BRIDE OE LAMMERMOOR. 15

tion which approached to it, lay under the necessity
of doing absohitely the reverse, and addressed itself
to the ear, for the purpose of exciting that interest
which it could not attain through the medium of
the eye."

Dick was not a whit staggered by my argument,
which he contended was founded on misrepresen-
tation. " Description," he said, " was to the author
of a romance exactly what drawing and tinting
were to a painter ; words were his colours, and, if
properly employed, they could not fail to place the
scene, which he wished to conjure up, as effectually
before the mind's eye, as the tablet or canvas
presents it to the bodily organ. The same rules,"
he contended, " applied to both, and an exuberance
of dialogue, in the former case, was a verbose and
laborious mode of composition which went to con-
found the proper art of fictitious narrative with
that of the drama, a widely different species of
composition, of which dialogue was the very essence,
because all, excepting the language to be made use
of, was presented to the eye by the dresses, and
persons, and actions of the performers upon the
stage. But as nothing," said Dick, " can be more
dull than a long narrative written upon the plan of
a drama, so where you have approached most near
to that species of composition, by indulging in pro-
longed scenes of mere conversation, the course of
your story has become chill and constrained, and
you have lost the power of arresting the attention
and exciting the imagination, in which upon other
occasions you may be considered as having suc-
ceeded tolerably well."

I made my bow in requital of the compliment,
which was probably thrown in by way of placebo,

i6 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

and expressed myself willing at least to make one
trial of a more straight-forward style of composi-
tion, in which my actors should do more, and say
less, than in my former attempts of this kind. Dick
gave me a patronizing and approving nod, and
observed, that, finding me so docile, he would com-
municate, for the benefit of my muse, a subject
which he had studied with a view to his own art.

" The story," he said, " was, by tradition, affirmed
to be truth, although, as upwards of a hundred
years had passed away since the events took place,
some doubts upon the accuracy of all the particulars
might be reasonably entertained."

Wlien Dick Tinto had thus spoken, he rum-
maged his portfolio for the sketch from which he pro-
posed one day to execute a picture of fourteen feet
by eight. The sketch, which was cleverly execu-
ted, to use the appropriate phrase, represented an
ancient hall, fitted up and furnished in what we
now call the taste of Queen Elizabeth's age. The
light, admitted from the upper part of a high case-
ment, fell upon a female figure of exquisite beauty,
who, in an attitude of speechless terror, appeared
to watch the issue of a debate betwixt two other
persons. The one was a young man, in the Van-
dyke dress common to the time of Charles I., who,
with an air of indignant pride, testified by the man-
ner in which he raised his head and extended his
arm, seemed to be urging a claim of right, rather
than of favour, to a lady, whose age, and some
resemblance in their features, pointed her out as
the mother of the younger female, and who ap-
peared to listen with a mixture of displeasure and
impatience.

Tinto produced his sketch with an air of myste-

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 17

rious triumph, and gazed on it as a fond parent
looks upon a hopeful child, while he anticipates
the future figure he is to make in the world, and
the height to which he will raise the honour of his
family. He held it at arms' length from me, — he
held it closer, — he placed it upon the top of a chest
of drawers, closed the lower shutters of the case-
ment, to adjust a downward and favourable light,
— fell back to the due distance, dragging me after
him, — shaded his face with his hand, as if to ex-
clude all but the favourite object, — and ended by
spoiling a child's copy book, which he rolled up so
as to serve for the darkened tube of an amateur.
I fancy my expressions of enthusiasm had not been
in proportion to his own, for he presently exclaimed
with vehemence, " Mr. Pattieson, I used to think
you had an eye in your head."

I vindicated my claim to the usual allowance of
visual organs.

" Yet, on my honour," said Dick, " I would swear
you had been born blind, since you have failed at
the first glance to discover the subject and meaning
of that sketch. I do not mean to praise my own
performance, I leave these arts to others ; I am sen-
sible of my deficiencies, conscious that my drawing
and colouring may be improved by the time I in-
tend to dedicate to the art. But the conception —
the expression — the positions — these tell the story
to every one who looks at tlie sketch ; and if I can
finish the picture without diminution of the origi-
nal conception, the name of Tinto shall no more be
smothered by the mists of envy and intrigue."

I replied, " That I admired the sketch exceed-
ingly ; but that to understand its full merit, I felt
it absolutely necessary to be informed of the subject."
2

i8 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

" That is the very thing I complain of," answered
Tinto; "you have accustomed yourself so much
to these creeping twilight details of yours, that you
are become incapable of receiving that instant and
vivid flash of conviction, which darts on the mind
from seeing the happy and expressive combinations
of a single scene, and which gathers from the posi-
tion, attitude, and countenance of the moment, not
only the history of the past lives of the personages
represented, and the nature of the business on which
they are immediately engaged, but lifts even the
veil of futurity, and affords a shrewd guess at their
future fortunes."

" In that case," replied I, " Painting excels the
Ape of the renowned Gines de Passamont (c), which
only meddled with the past and the present ; nay,
she excels that very Xature who affords her sub-
jects ; for I protest to you, Dick, that were I per-
mitted to peep into that Elizabeth-chamber, and
see the persons you have sketched conversing in
flesh and blood, I should not be a jot nearer guess-
ing the nature of their business, than I am at this
moment while looking at your sketch. Only gen-
erally, from the languishing look of the young
lady, and the care you have taken to present a very
handsome leg on the part of the gentleman, I pre-
sume there is some reference to a love affair
between them."

"Do you really presume to form such a bold
conjecture ? " said Tinto. " And the indignant ear-
nestness with which you see the man urge his suit
^- the unresisting and passive despair of the younger
female — the stern air of inflexible determination in
the elder woman, whose looks express at once con-
sciousness that she is acting wrong, and a firm

THE BRIDE OE LAMMERMOOR. 19

determination to persist in the course she has
adopted "

" If her looks express all this, my dear Tinto,"
replied I, interrupting him, " your pencil rivals the
dramatic art of Mr. Puff in the Critic, who crammed
a whole complicated sentence into the expressive
shake of Lord Burleigh's head."

" My good friend, Peter," replied Tinto, " I ob-
serve you are perfectly incorrigible ; however, I
have compassion on your dulness, and am unwilling
you should be deprived of the pleasure of under-
standing my picture, and of gaining, at the same
time, a subject for your own pen. You must know
then, last summer, while I was taking sketches on
the coast of East Lothian and Berwickshire, I was
seduced into the mountains of Lammermoor by the
account I received of some remains of antiquity in
that district. Those with which I was most struck,
were the ruins of an ancient castle in which that
Elizabeth-chamber, as you call it, once existed, I
resided for two or three days at a farm-house in
the neighbourhood, where the aged goodwife was
well acquainted with the history of the castle, and
the events which had taken place in it. One of
these was of a nature so interesting and singular,
that my attention was divided between my wish to
draw the old ruins in landscape, and to represent,
in a history-piece, the singular events which have
taken place in it. Here are my notes of the tale,"
said poor Dick, handing a parcel of loose scraps,
partly scratched over with his pencil, partly with
his pen, where outlines of caricatures, sketches of
turrets, mills, old gables, and dovecots, disputed the
ground with his written memoranda.

1 proceeded, however, to decipher the substance

20 TALES or MY LANDLORD.

of the manuscript as well as I could, and wove it
into the following Tale, in which, following in part,
though not entirely, my friend Tinto's advice, I
endeavoured to render my narrative rather descrip-
tive than dramatic. My favourite propensity, how-
ever, has at times overcome me, and my persons,
like many others in this talking world, speak now
and then a great deal more than they act.

I

CHAPTER II.

Well, lords, we have not got that which we have ;
'Tis not enough our foes are this time fled,
Being opposites of such repairing nature.

Second Part of Henry VI.

In the gorge of a pass or mountain glen, ascend-
ing from the fertile plains of East Lothian, there
stood in former times an extensive castle, of which
only the ruins are now visible. Its ancient pro-
prietors were a race of powerful and warlike barons,
who bore the same name with the castle itself, which
was Ravenswood. Their line extended to a remote
period of antiquity, and they had intermarried with
the Douglasses, Humes, Swintons, Hays, and other
families of power and distinction in the same coun-
try. Their history was frequently involved in that
of Scotland itself, in whose annals their feats are
recorded. The Castle of Ravenswood, occupying,
and in some measure commanding, a pass betwixt
Berwickshire or the Merse, as the south-eastern
province of Scotland is termed, and the Lothians,
was of importance both in times of foreign war and
domestic discord. It w^as frequently besieged with
ardour, and defended with obstinacy, and, of course,
its owners played a conspicuous part in story. But
their house had its re.volutions, like all sublunary
things ; it became greatly declined from its splen-
dour about the middle of the 17th century ; and
towards the period of the Revolution, the last pro-

22 TALES or MY LANDLORD.

prietor of Eavenswood Castle saw himself com-
pelled to part with the ancient family seat, and to
remove himself to a lonely and sea-beaten tower,
which, situated on the bleak shores between Saint
Abb's Head and the village of Eyemouth, looked
out on the lonely and boisterous German Ocean.
A black domain of wild pasture-land surrounded
their new residence, and formed the remains of their
property.

Lord Eavenswood, the heir of this ruined fam-
ily, was far from bending his mind to his new
condition of life. In the civil war of 1689, he had
espoused the sinking side, and although he had
escaped without the forfeiture of life or land, his
blood had been attainted, and his title abolished.
He was now called Lord Eavenswood only in
courtesy.

This forfeited nobleman inherited the pride and
turbulence, though not the fortune of his house,
and, as he imputed the final declension of his fam-
ily to a particular individual, he honoured that
person with his full portion of hatred. This was
the very man who had now become, by purchase,
proprietor of Eavenswood, and the domains of
which the heir of the house now stood dispos-
sessed. He was descended of a family much less an-
cient than that of Lord Eavenswood, and which
had only risen to wealth and political importance
during the great civil wars. He himself had been
bred to the bar, and had held liigh offices in the
state, maintaining through life the character of a
skilful fisher in the troubled' waters of a state di-
vided by factions, and governed by delegated
authority ; and of one who contrived to amass con-
siderable sums of money in a country where there

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOK 23

was but little to be gathered, and who equally knew
the value of wealth, and the various means of aug-
menting it, and using it as an engine of increasing
his power and influence.

Thus qualified and gifted, he was a dangerous
antagonist to the fierce and imprudent Ravenswood.
Whether he had given him good cause for the
enmity with which the Baron regarded him, was a
point on which men spoke differently. Some said
the quarrel arose merely from the vindictive spirit
and envy of Lord Eavenswood, who could not
patiently behold another, though by just and fair
purchase, become the proprietor of the estate and
castle of his forefathers. But the greater part of
the public, prone to slander the wealthy in their
absence, as to flatter them in their presence, held a
less charitable opinion. They said, that the Lord
Keeper (for to this height Sir William Ashton had
ascended) had, previous to the final purchase of
the estate of Ravenswood, been concerned in ex-
tensive pecuniary transactions with the former pro-
prietor ; and, rather intimating what was probable,
than affirming any thing positively, they asked which
party was likely to have the advantage in stating
and enforcing the claims arising out of these com-
plicated affairs, and more than hinted the advan-
tages which the cool lawyer and able politician
must necessarily possess over the hot, fiery, and
imprudent character, whom he had involved in
legal toils and pecuniary snares.

The character of the times aggravated these sus-
picions. "In those days there was no king in
Israel." Since the departure of James VI. to as-
sume the richer and more powerful crown of Eng-
land, there bad existed in Scotland contending pai-

24 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

ties, formed among the aristocracy, by whom, as
their intrigues at the court of St James's chanced
to prevail, the delegated powers of sovereignty
were alternately swayed. The evils attending upon
this system of government, resemble those which
afflict the tenants of an Irish estate, the property of
an absentee. There was no supreme power, claim-
ing and possessing a general interest with the com-
munity at large, to whom the oppressed might
appeal from subordinate tyranny, either for justice
or for mercy. Let a monarch be as indolent, as
selfish, as much disposed to arbitrary power as he
will, still, in a free country, his own interests are
so clearly connected with those of the public at
large, and the evil consequences to his own autho-
rity are so obvious and imminent when a different
course is pursued, that common policy, as well as
common feeling, point to the equal distribution of
justice, and to the establishment of the throne in
righteousness. Thus, even sovereigns, remarkable
for usurpation and tyranny, have been found rigor-
ous in the administration of justice among their
subjects, in cases where their own power and pas-
sions were not compromised.

It is very different when the powers of sove-
reignty are delegated to the head of an aristocratic
faction, rivalled and pressed closely in the race of
ambition by an adverse leader. His brief and pre-
carious enjoyment of power must be employed in
rewarding his partisans, in extending his influence,
in oppressing and crushing his adversaries. Even
Abou Hassan, the most disinterested of all vice-
roys, forgot not, during his caliphate of one day,
to send a douceiir of one thousand pieces of gold to
his own household ; and the Scottish vicegerents.

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 25

raised to power by the strength of their faction,
failed not to embrace the same means of rewarding
them.

The administration of justice, in particular, was
infected by the most gross partiality. A case of
importance scarcely occurred, in which there was
not some ground for bias or partiality on the part
of the judges, who were so little able to withstand
the temptation, that the adage, " Show me the
man, and I will show you the law," became as pre-
valent as it was scandalous. One corruption led
the way to others still more gross and profligate.
The judge who lent his sacred authority in one
case to support a friend, and in another to crush an
enemy, and whose decisions were founded on family
connexions, or political relations, could not be sup-
posed inaccessible to direct personal motives ; and
the purse of the wealthy was too often believed to
be thrown into the scale to weigh down the cause
of the poor litigant. The subordinate officers of
the law affected little scruple concerning bribery.
Pieces of plate, and bags of money, were sent in
presents to the king's counsel, to influence their
conduct, and poured forth, says a contemporary
writer, like billets of wood upon their floors, with-
out even the decency of concealment.

In such times, it was not over uncharitable to
suppose, that the statesman, practised in courts of
law, and a powerful member of a triumphant cabal,
might find and use means of advantage over his
less skilful and less favoured adversary ; and if it
had been supposed that Sir William Ashton's con-
science had been too delicate to profit by these
advantages, it was believed that his ambition and
desire of extending his wealth and consequence,

26 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

found as strong a stimulus in the exhortations of
his lady, as the daring aim of Macbeth in the days
of yore.

Lady Ashton was of a family more distinguished
than that of her lord, an advantage which she did
not fail to use to the uttermost, in maintaining and
extending her husband's influence over others, and,
unless she was greatly belied, her own over him.
She had been beautiful, and was stately and majes-
tic in her appearance. Endowed by nature with
strong powers and violent passions, experience had
taught her to employ the one, and to conceal, if not
to moderate, the other. She was a severe and strict
observer of the external forms, at least, of devotion ;
her hospitality was splendid, even to ostentation ;
her address and manners, agreeable to the pattern
most valued in Scotland at the period, were grave,
dignified, and severely regulated by the rules of
etiquette. Her character had always been beyond
the breath of slander. And yet, with all these
qualities to excite respect. Lady Ashton was seldom
mentioned in the terms of love or affection. In-
terest, — the interest of her family, if not her own,
— seemed too obviously the motive of her actions ;
and where this is the case, the sharp-judging and
malignant public are not easily imposed upon by
outward show. It was seen and ascertained, that,
in her most graceful courtesies and compliments,
Lady Ashton no more lost sight of her object than
the falcon in his airy wheel turns his quick eyes
from his destined quarry ; and hence, something
of doubt and suspicion qualified the feelings with
which her equals received her attentions. With
her inferiors these feelings were mingled with fear ;
an impression useful to her purposes, so far as it en-

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 27

forced ready compliance with her requests, and im-
plicit obedience to her commands, but detrimental,
because it cannot exist with affection or regard.

Even her husband, it is said, upon whose fortunes
her talents and address had produced such empha-
tic influence, regarded her with respectful awe
rather than confiding attachment ; and report said,
there were times when he considered his grandeur
as dearly purchased at the expense of domestic
thraldom. Of this, howevej', much might be sus-
pected, but little could be accurately known ; Lady
Ashton regarded the honour of her husband as hei
own, and was well aware how much that would
suffer in the public eye should he appear a vassal
to his wife. In all her arguments, his opinion was
quoted as infallible ; his taste was appealed to, and
his sentiments received, with the air of deference
which a dutiful wife might seem to owe to a hus-
band of Sir "William Ashton's rank and character.
But there was something under all this which rung
false and hollow ; and to those who watched this
couple with close, and perhaps malicious scrutiny,
it seemed evident, that, in the haughtiness of a
firmer character, higher birth, and more decided
views of aggrandizement, the lady looked with
some contempt on her husband, and that he re-
garded her with jealous fear, rather than with love
or admiration.

Still, however, the leading and favourite inter-
ests of Sir "William Ashton and his lady were the
same, and they failed not to work in concert, al-
though without cordiality, and to testify, in all
exterior circumstances, that respect for each other,
which they were aware was necessary to secure
that of the public.

28 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

Their union was crowned with several children,
of whom three survived. One, the eldest son, was
absent on his travels ; the second, a girl of seven-
teen, and the third, a boy about three years younger,
resided with their parents in Edinburgh, during
the sessions of the Scottish Parliament and Privy-
council, at other times in the old Gothic castle of
Ravenswood, to which the Lord Keeper had made
large additions in the style of the seventeenth
century.

Allan Lord Eavenswood, the late proprietor of
that ancient mansion and the large estate annexed
to it, continued for some time to wage ineffectual
war with his successor concerning various points
to which their former transactions had given rise,
and which were successively determined in favour
of the wealthy and powerful competitor, until death
closed the litigation, by summoning Eavenswood to
a higher bar. The thread of life, which had been
long wasting, gave way during a fit of violent and
impotent fury, with which he was assailed on re-
ceiving the news of the loss of a cause, founded,
perhaps, rather in equity than in law, the last which
he had maintained against his powerful antagonist.
His son witnessed his dying agonies, and heard the
curses which he breathed against his adversary, as
if they had conveyed to him a legacy of vengeance.
Other circumstances happened to exasperate a pas-
sion, which was, and had long been, a prevalent vice
in the Scottish disposition.

It was a November morning, and the cliffs which
overlooked the ocean were hung with thick and
heavy mist, when the portals of the ancient and
half-ruinous tower, in which Lord Eavenswood had
spent the last and troubled years of his life, opened,

THE ERIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 29

that his oiortal remains might pass forward to an
abode yet more dreary and lonely. The pomp of
attendance, to which the deceased had, in his latter
years, been a stranger, was revived as he was about
to be consigned to the realms of forgetfulness.

Banner after banner, with the various devices and
coats of this ancient family and its connexions, fol-
lowed each other in mournful procession from under
the low-browed archway of the court-yard. The
principal gentry of the country attended in the
deepest mourning, and tempered the pace of their
long train of horses to the solemn march befitting
the occasion. Trumpets, with banners of crape
attached to them, sent forth their long and melan-
choly notes to regulate the movements of the pro-
cession. An immense train of inferior mourners
and menials closed the rear, which had not yet is-
sued from the castle-gate, when the van had reached
the chapel where the body was to be deposited.

Contrary to the custom, and even to the law of
the time, the body was met by a priest of the Scot-
tish Episcopal communion, arrayed in his surplice,
and prepared to read over the coffin of the deceased
the funeral service of the church. Such had been
the desire of Lord Ravenswood in his last illness,
and it was readily complied with by the tory gentle-
men, or cavaliers, as tbey affected to style them-
selves, in which faction most of his kinsmen were
enrolled. The presbyterian church-judicatory of the
bounds, considering the ceremony as a bravading
insult upon their authority, had applied to the Lord
Keeper, as the nearest privy-councillor, for a war-
rant to prevent its being carried into effect ; so that,
when the clergyman had opened his prayer-book, an
officer of the law, supported by some armed nieii,

30 TALES or MY LANDLORD.

commanded him to be silent. An insult, which
fired the whole assembly with indignation, was par-
ticularly and instantly resented by the only son of
the deceased, Edgar, popularly called the Master of
Eavenswood, a youth of about twenty years of age.
He clapped his hand on his sword, and, bidding the
official person to desist at his peril from farther in-
terruption, commanded the clergyman to proceed.
The man attempted to enforce his commission, but
as an hundred swords at once glittered in the air,
he contented himself with protesting against the
violence which had been offered to him in the exe-
cution of his duty, and stood aloof, a sullen and
moody spectator of the ceremonial, muttering as one
who should say, " You'll rue the day that clogs me
with this answer. "

The scene was worthy of an artist's pencil. Un-
der the very arch of the house of death, the clergy-
man, affrighted at the scene, and trembling for his
own safety, hastily and unwillingly rehearsed the
solemn service of the church, and spoke dust to
dust, and ashes to ashes, over ruined pride and de-
cayed prosperity. Around stood the relations of the
deceased, their countenances more in anger than in
sorrow, and the drawn swords which they brandished
forming a violent contrast with their deep mourning
habits. In the countenance of the young man alone,
resentment seemed for the moment overpowered by
the deep agony with which he beheld his nearest, and
almost his only friend, consigned to the tomb of his
ancestry. A relative observed him turn deadly pale,
when, all rites being now duly observed, it became
the duty of the chief mourner to lower down into
the charnel vault, where mouldering coffins showed
their tattered velvet and decayed plating, the head

THE BRIDE OF LxiMMERMOOK 31

of the corpse which was to be their partner in cor-
ruption. He stept to the youth and offered his
assistance, which, by a mute motion, Edgar Eavens-
wood rejected. Firmly, and without a tear, he per-
formed that last duty. The stone was laid on the
sepulchre, the door of the aisle was locked, and the
youth took possession of its massive key.

As the crowd left the chapel, he paused on the
steps which led to its Gothic chancel. " Gentlemen
and friends," he said, " you have this day done no
common duty to the body of your deceased kins-
man. The rites of due observance, which, in other
countries, are allowed as the due of the meanest
Christian, would this day have been denied to the
body of your relative — not certainly sprung of the
meanest house in Scotland — had it not been as-
sured to him by your courage. Others bury their
dead in sorrow and tears, in silence and in rever-
ence ; our funeral rites are marred by the intrusion
of bailiffs and ruffians, and our grief — the grief due
to our departed friend — is chased from our cheeks
by the glow of just indignation. But it is well that
I know from what quiver this arrow has come forth.
It was only he that dug the grave who could have
the mean cruelty to disturb the obsequies ; and
Heaven do as much to me and more, if I requite not
to this man and his house the ruin and disgrace he
has brought on me and mine !"

A numerous part of the assembly applauded this
speech, as the spirited expression of just resent-
ment; but the more cool and judicious regretted
that it had been uttered. The fortunes of the heir
of Kavenswood were too low to brave the farther
hostility which they imagined these open expres-
sions of resentment must necessarily provoke. Their

32 TALES or MY LANDLORD.

apprehensions, however, proved groundless, at least
in the immediate consequences of this affair.

The mourners returned to the tower, there, ac-
cording to a custom but recently abolished in Scot-
land, to carouse deep healths to the memory of the
deceased, to make the house of sorrow ring with
sounds of jovialty and debauch, and to diminish, by
the expense of a large and profuse entertainment,
the limited revenues of the heir of him whose fu-
neral they thus strangely honoured. It was the cus-
tom, however, and on the present occasion it was
fully observed. The tables swam in wine, the pop-
ulace feasted in the court-yard, the yeomen in the
kitchen and buttery ; and two years' rent of Eavens-
wood's remaining property hardly defrayed the
charge of the funeral revel. The wine did its office
on all but the Master of Eavenswood, a title which
he still retained, though forfeiture had attached to
that of his father. He, while passing around the
cup which he himself did not taste, soon listened to
a thousand exclamations against the Lord Keeper,
and passionate protestations of attachment to him-
self, and to the honour of his house. He listened
with dark and sullen brow to ebullitions which he
considered justly as equally evanescent with the
crimson bubbles on the brink of the goblet, or at
least with the vapours which its contents excited
in the brains of the revellers around him.

When the last flask was emptied, they took their
leave, with deep protestations — to be forgotten on
the morrow, if, indeed, those who made them should
not think it necessary for their safety to make a
more solemn retractation.

Accepting their adieus with an air of contempt
which he could scarce conceal, Eavenswood at

THE BRIDE OE L. i:\IMERMOOR. 33

length beheld his rainous habitation cleared of this
continence of riotous guests, and returned to the
deserted hall, which now appeared doubly lonely
from the cessation of that clamour to which it had
so lately echoed. But its space was peopled by
phantoms, which the imagination of the young heir
conjured up before him — the tarnished honour and
degraded fortunes of his house, the destruction of
his own hopes, and the triumph of that family by
whom they had been ruined. To a mind natur-
ally of a gloomy cast, here was ample room for med-
itation, and the musings of young Eavenswood were
deep and unwitnessed.

The peasant, who shows the ruins of the tower,
which still crown the beetling cliff and behold the
war of the waves, though no more tenanted save
by the sea-mew and cormorant, even yet afhrms,
that on this fatal night the Master of Eavenswood,
by the bitter exclamations of his despair, evoked
some evil fiend, under whose malignant influence
the future tissue of incidents was woven. Alas !
what fiend can suggest more desperate counsels,
than those adopted under the guidance of our own
violent and unresisted passions ?

CHAPTER III.

Over Grids forbode, then said the King,
That tlion shouldst shoot at me.

William Bell, Clim o' the Clcuch, d-c.

On the morning after the funeral, the legal offi-
cer, whose authority had been found insufficient to
efitect an interruption of the funeral solemnities of
the late Lord liavenswood, hastened to state be-
fore the Keeper the resistance which he had met
with in the execution of his office.

The statesman was seated in a spacious library,
once a banqueting-room in the old Castle of Rav-
ens wood, as was evident from the armorial insig-
nia still displayed on the carved roof, which was
vaulted with Spanish chestnut, and on the stained
glass of the casement, through which gleamed a dim
yet rich light, on the long rows of shelves, bending
under the weight of legal commentators and monk-
ish historians, whose ponderous volumes formed the
chief and most valued contents of a Scottish histo-
rian of the period, (f?) On the massive oaken table
and reading-desk, lay a confused mass of letters,
petitions, and parchments ; to toil amongst which
was the pleasure at once and the plague of Sir
William Ashton's life. His appearance was grave
and even noble, well becoming one who held a
high office in the state; and it was not, save after
lon.<,' and intimate conversation with him upon

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 35

topics of pressing and personal interest, that a
stranger could have discovered something vacillat-
ing and uncertain in his resolutions ; an infirm-
ity of purpose, arising from a cautious and timid
disposition, which, as he was conscious of its in-
ternal influence on his mind, he was, from pride
as well as policy, most anxious to conceal from
others.

He listened with great apparent composure to
an exaggerated account of the tumult which had
taken place at the funeral, of the contempt thrown
on his own authority, and that of the church and
state ; nor did he seem moved even by the faithful
report of the insulting and threatening language
which had been uttered by young Ravenswood and
others, and obviously directed against himself. He
heard, also, what the man had been able to collect,
in a very distorted and aggravated shape, of the
toasts which had been drunk, and the menaces ut-
tered, at the subsequent entertainment. In fine, he
made careful notes of all these particulars, and of
the names of the persons by whom, in case of need,
an accusation, founded upon these violent proceed-
ings, could be witnessed and made good, and dis-
missed his informer, secure that he was now master
of the remaining fortune, and even of the personal
liberty, of young Eavenswood.

When the door had closed upon the officer of
the law, the Lord Keeper remained for a moment
in deep meditation ; then, starting from his seat,
paced the apartment as one about to take a sudden
and energetic resolution. " Young Ravenswood,"
he muttered, " is now mine — he is my own — he
has placed himself in my hand, and he shall bend
or break. I have not forgot the determined and

36 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

dogged obstinacy with which his father fought every
point to the last, resisted every effort at compro-
mise, embroiled me in lawsuits, and attempted to
assail my character when he could not otherwise
impugn my rights. This boy he has left behind him
— this Edgar — this hot-headed, hare-brained fool,
has wrecked his vessel before she has cleared the
harbour. I must see that he gains no advantage of
some turning tide which may again float him off.
These memoranda, properly stated to the Privy
Council, cannot but be construed into an aggrava-
ted riot, in which the dignity both of the civil and
ecclesiastical authorities stand committed. A heavy
fine might be imposed ; an order for committing
him to Edinburgh or Blackness Castle seems not
improper ; even a charge of treason might be laid
on many of these words and expressions, though
God forbid I should prosecute the matter to that
extent. No, I will not ; — I will not touch his life,
even if it should be in my power ; — and yet, if he
lives till a change of times, what follows ? — Eesti-
tution — perhaps revenge. I know Athole promised
his interest to old Ravenswood, and here is his
son already bandying and making a faction by his
own contemptible influence. What a ready tool he
would be for the use of those who are watching the
downfall of our administration ! "

While these thoughts were agitating the mind of
the wily statesman, and while he was persuading
himself that his own interest and safety, as well as
those of his friends and party, depended on using
the present advantage to the uttermost against
young Ravenswood, the Lord Keeper sat down to
his desk, and proceeded to draw up, for the infor-
mation of the Privv Council, an account of the dis-

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 37

orderly proceedings which, in contempt of his
warrant, liad taken phice at the funeral of Lord
Eaveuswood. The names of most of the parties con-
cerned, as well as the fact itself, would, he was well
aware, sound odiously in the ears of his colleagues
in administration, and most likely instigate them to
make an example of young Eavenswood, at least,
in terrorem.

It was a point of delicacy, however, to select
such expressions as might infer the young man's
culpability, without seeming directly to urge it,
which, on the part of Sir William Ashton, his
father's ancient antagonist, could not but appear odi-
ous and invidious. While he was in the act of
composition, labouring to find words which might
indicate Edgar Eavenswood to be the cause of the
uproar, without specifically making such a charge,
Sir William, in a pause of his task, chanced, in look-
ing upward, to see the crest of the family, (for whose
heir he was whetting the arrows, and disposing the
toils of the law,) carved upon one of the corbeilles
from which the vaulted roof of the apartment
sprung. It was a black bull's head, with the legend,
" I bide my time ; " and the occasion upon wliich it
was adopted mingled itself singularly and impress-
ively with the subject of his present reflections.

It was said by a constant tradition, that a Mali-
sius de Eavenswood had, in the thirteenth century,
been deprived of his castle and lands by a power-
ful usurper, who had for a while enjoyed his spoils
in quiet. At length, on the eve of a costly ban-
quet, Eavenswood, who had watched his opportu-
nity, introduced himself into the castle with a small
band of faithful retainers. The serving of the
expected feast was impatiently looked for by the

38 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

guests, and clamorously demanded by the tempo-
rary master of the castle. Eavenswood, who had
assumed the disguise of a sewer upon the occasion,
answered, in a stern voice, " I bide my time ; " and
at the same moment a bull's head, the ancient sym-
bol of death (e), was placed upon the table. The ex-
plosion of the conspiracy took place upon the signal,
and the usurper and his followers were put to
death. Perhaps there was something in this still
known and often repeated story, which came im-
mediately home to the breast and conscience of the
Lord Keeper ; for, putting from him the paper on
which he had begun his report, and carefully lock-
ing the memoranda which he had prepared, into
a cabinet which stood beside him, he proceeded to
walk abroad, as if for the purpose of collecting his
ideas, and reflecting farther on the consequences of
the step which he was about to take, ere yet they
became inevitable.

In passing through a large Gothic anteroom. Sir
William Ashton heard the sound of his daughter's
lute. Music, when the performers are concealed,
affects us with a pleasure mingled with surprise,
and reminds us of the natural concert of birds
among tlie leafy bowers. The statesman, though
little accustomed to give way to emotions of this
natural and simple class, was still a man and a
father. He stopped, therefore, and listened, while
the silver tones of Lucy Ashton's voice mingled
with the accompaniment in an ancient air, to which
some one had adapted the following words :

" Look not thou on beauty's charming, —
Sit thou still when kings are arming, —
Taste not when the wine-cuji glistens, —
Speak not when the people listens, —

The bride of lammermook. 39

Stop thine ear against the singer, —
From the red gold keep thy finger, —
Vacant heart, and hand, and eye, —
Easy live and quiet die."

The sounds ceased, and the Keeper entered his
daughter's apartment.

The words she had chosen seemed particularly
adapted to her character ; for Lucy Ashton's exqui-
sitely beautiful, yet somewhat girlish features, were
formed to express peace of mind, serenity, and in-
difference to the tinsel of worldly pleasure. Her
locks, which were of shadowy gold, divided on a
brow of exquisite whiteness, like a gleam of broken
and pallid sunshine upon a hill of snow. The ex-
pression of the countenance was in the last degree
gentle, soft, timid, and feminine, and seemed rather
to shrink from the most casual look of a stranger,
than to court his admiration. Something there was
of a Madonna cast, perhaps the result of delicate
health, and of residence in a family, where the dis-
positions of the inmates were fiercer, more active,
and energetic, than her own.

Yet her passiveness of disposition was by no
means owing to an indifferent or unfeeling mind.
Left to the impulse of her own j:aste and feelings,
Lucy Ashton was peculiarly accessible to those of
a romantic cast. Her secret delight was in the old
legendary tales of ardent devotion and unalterable
affection, chequered as they so often are with strange
adventures and supernatural horrors. This was
her favoured fairy realm, and here she erected her
aerial palaces. But it was only in secret that she
laboured at this delusive, though delightful archi-
tecture. In her retired chamber, or in the wood-
land bower which she had chosen for her own, and

40 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

called after her name, she was in fancy distributing
the prizes at the tournament, or raining down in-
fluence from her eyes on the valiant combatants ;
or she was wandering in the wilderness with Una,
under escort of the generous lion ; or she was iden-
tifying herself with the simple, yet noble-minded
Miranda, in the isle of wonder and enchantment.

But in her exterior relations to things of this
world, Lucy willingly received the ruling impulse
from those around her, The alternative was, in
general, too indifferent to her to render resistance
desirable, and she willingly found a motive for de-
cision in the opinion of her friends, which perhaps
she might have sought for in vain in her own
choice. Every reader must have observed in some
family of his acquaintance, some individual of a
temper soft and yielding, who, mixed with stronger
and more ardent minds, is borne along by the will
of others, with as little power of opposition as the
flower which is flung into a running stream. It
usually happens that such a compliant and easy
disposition, which resigns itself without murmur to
the guidance of others, becomes the darling of those
to whose inclinations its own seem to be offered, in
ungrudging and ready sacrifice.

This was eminently the case with Lucy Ashton.
Her politic, wary, and worldly father, felt for her
an affection, the strength of which sometimes sur-
prised him into an unusual emotion. Her elder
brother, who trode the path of ambition with a
haughtier step than his father, had also more of
human affection. A soldier, and in a dissolute age,
he preferred his sister Lucy even to pleasure, and
to military preferment and distinction. Her younger
brother, at an age when trifles chiefly occupied his

THE BRIDE OF LA.MMERMOOR. 41

mind, made her the confident of all his pleasures
and anxieties, his success in field-sports, and his
quarrels with his tutor and instructors. To these
details, however trivial, Lucy lent patient and not
indifierent attention. Thej^ moved and interested
Henry, and that was enough to secure her ear.

Her mother alone did not feel that distinguished
and predominating affection, with which the rest of
the family cherished Lucy. She regarded what she
termed her daughter's want of spirit, as a decided
mark, that the more plebeian blood of her father
predominated in Lucy's veins, and used to call her
in derision her Lammermoor Shepherdess. To
dislike so gentle and inoffensive a being was im-
possible; but Lady Ashtou preferred her eldest
son, on whom had descended a large portion of her
own ambitious and undaunted disposition, to a
daughter whose softness of temper seemed allied to
feebleness of mind. Her eldest son was the more
partially beloved by his mother, because, contrary
to the usual custom of Scottish families of distinc-
tion, he had been named after the head of the
house.

" My Sholto," she said, " will support the un-
tarnished honour of his maternal house, and elevate
and support that of his father. Poor Lucy is unfit
for courts or crowded halls. Some country laird
must be her husband, rich enough to supply her
with every comfort, without an effort on her own
part, so that she may have nothing to shed a tear
for but the tender apprehension lest he may break
his neck in a fox-chase. It was not so, however,
that our house was raised, nor is it so that it can
be fortified and augmented. The Lord Keeper's
dignity is yet new ; it must be borne as if we were

42 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

used to its weight, worthy of it, and prompt to
assert and maintain it. Before ancient authorities,
men bend, from customary and hereditary defer-
ence ; in our presence, they will stand erect, unless
they are compelled to prostrate themselyes. A
daughter fit for the sheep-fold or the cloister, is ill
qualified to exact respect where it is yielded with
reluctance ; and since Heayen refused us a third
boy, Lucy should haye held a character fit to supply
his place. The hour will be a happy one which
disposes her hand in marriage to some one whose
energy is greater than her own, or whose ambition
is of as low an order."

So meditated a mother, to whom the qualities of
her children's hearts, as well as the prospect of their
domestic happiness, seemed light in comparison to
their rank and temporal greatness. But, like many
a parent of hot and impatient character, she was
mistaken in estimating the feelings of her daughter,
who, under a semblance of extreme indifference,
nourished the germ of those passions which some-
times spring up in one night, like the gourd of the
prophet, and astonish the obseryer by their unex-
pected ardour and intensity. In fact, Lucy's sen-
timents seemed chill, because nothing had occurred
to interest or awaken them. Her life had hitherto
flowed on in a uniform and gentle tenor, and happy
for her had not its present smoothness of current
resembled that of the stream as it glides downwards
to the waterfall !

" So, Lucy," said her father, entering as her song
was ended, " does your musical philosopher teach
you to contemn the world before you know it ? —
that is surely something premature. Or did you
but speak according to the fa.shion of fair maidens.

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 43

who are ahvays to hold the pleasures of life in con-
tempt till they are pressed upon them by the
address of some gentle knight ? "

Lucy blushed, disclaimed any inference respect-
ing her own choice being drawn from her selection
of a song, and readily laid aside her instrument at
her father's request that she would attend him in
his walk.

A large and well-wooded park, or rather chase,
stretched along the hill behind the castle, which
occupying, as we have noticed, a pass ascending
from the plain, seemed built in its very gorge to
defend the forest ground which arose behind it in
shaggy majesty. Into this romantic region the
father and daughter proceeded, arm in arm, by a
noble avenue overarched by embowering elms, be-
neath which groups of the fallow-deer were seen to
stray in distant perspective. As they paced slowly
on, admiring the different points of view, for which
Sir William Ashton, notwithstanding the nature of
his usual avocations, had considerable taste and
feeling, they were overtaken by the forester, or
park-keeper, who, intent on silvan sport, was pro-
ceeding with his cross-bow over his arm, and a
hound led in leash by his boy, into the interior of
the wood.

" Going to shoot us a piece of venison, Xorman ? "
said his master, as he returned the woodman's
salutation.

"Saul, your honour, and that I am. Will it
please you to see the sport ? "

"0 no," said his lordship, after looking at his
daughter, whose colour fled at the idea of seeing
the deer shot, although had her father expressed
his wish that they should accompany Norman, it

44 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

was probable she would not even have hinted her
reluctance.

The forester shrufrsed his shoulders. " It was
a dishearteninfT thino;," he said, " when none of the
gentles came down to see the sport. He hoped
Captain Sholto would be soon name, or he might
shut up his shop entirely ; for Mr. Harry was kept
sae close wi' his Latin nonsense, that, though his
will was very gude to be in the wood from morning
till night, there would be a hopeful lad lost, and
no making a man of him. It was not so, he had
heard, in Lord Eavenswood's time — wdien a buck
was to be killed, man and mother's son ran to see ;
and when the deer fell, the knife was always pre-
sented to the knight, and he never gave less than
a dollar for the compliment. And there was Edgai
Ravenswood — Master of Ravenswood that is now
— when he goes up to the wood — there hasna been
a better hunter since Tristrem's time — when Sir
Edgar bauds out,^ down goes the deer, faith. But
we hae lost a' sense of wood-craft on this side of
the hill."

There was much in this harangue highly dis-
pleasing to the Lord Keeper's feelings ; he could
not help observing that his menial despised him
almost avowedly for not possessing that taste for
sport, which in those times was deemed the natural
and indispensable attribute of a real gentleman.
But the master of the game is, in all country houses,
a man of great importance, and entitled to use con-
siderable freedom of speech. Sir William, there-
fore, only smiled and replied, he had something
else to think upon to-day than killing deer ; mean-
time, taking out his purse, he gave the ranger a
^ Hands out. Holds out, i. e presents his piece.

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR, 45

dollar for his encouragement. The fellow received
it as the waiter of a fashionable hotel receives
double his proper fee from the hands of a country
gentleman, — that is, with a smile, in which plea-
sure at the gift is mingled with contempt for the
ignorance of the donor. " Your honour is the bad
paymaster," he said, " who pays before it is done.
What would you do were I to miss the buck after
you have paid me my wood-fee ? "

"I suppose," said the Keeper, smiling, "you
would hardly guess what I mean were I to tell you
of a condietio indebiti?" (f)

" Not I, on my saul — I guess it is some law
phrase — but sue a beggar, and — your honour
knows what follows. — Well, but I will be just with
you, and if bow and brach fail not, you shall have a
piece of game two fingers fat on the brisket."

As he was about to go off, his master again called
him, and asked, as if by accident, whether the Mas-
ter of Ravenswood was actually so brave a man and
so good a shooter as the world spoke him ?

" Brave ! — brave enough, I warrant you," an-
swered Norman ; " I was in the wood at Tyning-
hame, when there was a sort of gallants hunting
with my lord ; on my saul, there was a buck turned
to bay made us all stand back ; a stout old Trojan
of the first head, ten-tyned branches, and a brow as
broad as e'er a bullock's. Egad, he dashed at tlie
old lord, and there would have been inlake among
the peerage, if the Master had not whipt roundly
in, and hamstrung him with his cutlass. He was
but sixteen then, bless his heart ! "

" And is he as ready with the gun as with the
couteau ?" said Sir William.

" He'll strike this silver dollar out from between

46 TALES or MY LANDLORD.

my finger and thumb at fourscore yards, and I'll
hold it out for a gold merk ; what more would ye
have of eye, hand, lead, and gunpowder ? "

" 0, no more to be wished, certainly," said the
Lord Keeper ; " but we keep you from your sport,
Norman. Good morrow, good Norman."

And humming his rustic roundelay, the yeoman
went on his road, the sound of his rough voice grad-
ually dying away as the distance betwixt them
increased : —

" The monk must arise wheii the matins ring,
The abbot may sleep to their chime ;
But the yeoman must start when the bugles sing,
'Tis time, my hearts, 'tis time.

" There's bucks and raes on Bilhope braes, (g)
There's a herd on Shortwood Shaw ;
But a lily-white doe in the garden goes.
She's fairly worth them a'."

"Has this fellow," said the Lord Keeper, when
the yeoman's song had died on the wind, " ever
served the Eavenswood people, that he seems so
much interested in them ? I suppose you know,
Lucy, for you make it a point of conscience to
record the special history of every boor about the
castle."

" I am not quite so faithful a chronicler, my dear
father; but I believe that Norman once served here
while a boy, and before he went to Ledington,
whence you hired him. But if you want to know
any thing of the former family, old Alice is the
best authority "

"And what should I have to do with them, pray,
Lucy," said her father, " or with their history or
accomplishments ? "

THE BKIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 47

" Nay, I do not know, sir ; only that you were
asking questions of Norman about young Ravens-
wood."

" Psliaw, child ! " — replied her father, yet imme-
diately added, " And who is old Alice ? I think
you know all the old women in the country."

" To be sure I do, or how could I help the old
creatures when they are in hard times ? .And as to
old Alice, she is the very empress of old women,
and queen of gossips, so far as legendary lore is
concerned. She is blind, poor old soul, but when
she speaks to you, you would think she has some
way of looking into your very heart. I am sure I
often cover my face, or turn it away, for it seems
as if she saw one change colour, though she has
been blind these twenty years. She is worth visit-
ing, were it but to say you have seen a blind and
paralytic old woman have so much acuteness of
perception, and dignity of manners. I assure you,
she might be a countess from her language and
behaviour. — Come, you must go to see Alice ; we
are not a quarter of a mile from her cottage."

"All this, my dear," said the Lord Keeper, " is
no answer to my question, who this woman is, and
what is her connexion with the former proprietor's
family ? "

" 0, it was something of a nourice-ship, I be-
lieve ; and she remained here, because her two
grandsons were engaged in your service. But it
was against her will, I fancy ; for the poor old
creature is always regretting the change of times
and of property."

" I am much obliged to her," answered the Lord
Keeper. " She and her folk eat my bread and
drink my cup^ and are lamenting all the while that

48 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

they are not still under a family which never could
do good, either to themselves or any one else ! "

" Indeed," replied Lucy, " I am certain you do
old Alice injustice. She has nothing mercenary
about her, and would not accept a penny in charity,
if it were to save her from being starved. She is
only talkative, like all old folk, when you put them
upon stories of their youth ; and she speaks about
the Eavenswood people, because she lived under
them so many years. But I am sure she is grateful
to you, sir, for your protection, and that she would
rather speak to you, than to any other person in the
whole world beside. Do, sir, come and see old
Alice."

And with the freedom of an indulged daughter,
she dragged the Lord Keeper in the direction she
desired.

CHAPTER IV.

Throujrh tops of the high trees she did descry
A little smoke, whose vapour, tliiu and light,
Reeking aloft, uprolled to the sky.
Which cheerful sign did send unto her sight,
That in the same did wonne some living wight.

Sfexser.

Lucy acted as her father's guide, for he was too
much engrossed with his political labours, or with
society, to be perfectly acquainted with his own
extensive domains, and, moreover, was generally an
inhabitant of the city of Edinburgh ; and she, on
the other hand, had, with her mother, resided the
whole summer in Ravenswood, and, partly from
taste, partly from want of any other amusement,
had, by her frequent rambles, learned to know each
lane, alley, dingle, or bushy dell.

And every bosky bourne from side to side.

We have said that the Lord Keeper was not
indifferent to the beauties of nature; and we add,
in justice to him, that he felt them doubly, when
pointed out by the beautiful, simple, and interest-
ing girl, who, hanging on his arm with filial kind-
ness, now called him to admire the size of some
ancient oak, and now the unexpected turn, where
the path developing its maze from glen or dingle,
suddenly reached an eminence commanding an ex-
tensive view of the plains beneath them, and then
gradually glided away from the prospect to lose

50 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

itself among rocks and thickets, and guide to scenes
of deeper seclusion.

It was when pausing on one of those points of
extensive and commanding view, that Lucy told
her father they were close by the cottage of her
blind protegee ; and on turning from the little hill,
a path which led around it, worn by the daily steps
of the infirm inmate, brought them in sight of the
hut, which, embosomed in a deep and obscure dell,
seemed to have been so situated purposely to bear
a correspondence with the darkened state of its
inhabitant.

The cottage was situated immediately under a
tall rock, which in some measure beetled over it,
as if threatening to drop some detached fragment
from its brow on the frail tenement beneath. The
hut itself was constructed of turf and stones, and
rudely roofed over with thatch, much of which was
in a dilapidated condition. The thin blue smoke
rose from it in a light column, and curled upward
along the white face of the incumbent rock, giving
the scene a tint of exquisite softness. In a small
and rude garden, surrounded by straggling elder-
bushes, which formed a sort of imperfect hedge, sat
near to the bee-hives, by the produce of which she
lived, that " woman old," whom Lucy had brought
her father hither to visit.

Whatever there had been which was disastrous
in her fortune — whatever there was miserable in
her dwelling, it was easy to judge, by the first
glance, that neither years, poverty, misfortune, nor
infirmity, had broken the spirit of this remarkable
woman.

She occupied a turf-seat, placed under a weeping
birch of unusual magnitude and age, as Judah is

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 51

represented sitting under her palm-tree, with an
air at once of majesty and of dejection. Her figure
was tall, commanding, and but little bent by the
infirmities of old age. Her dress, though that of
a peasant, was uncommonly clean, forming in that
particular a strong contrast to most of her rank,
and was disposed with an attention to neatness, and
even to taste, equally unusual. But it was her
expression of countenance which chiefly struck the
spectator, and induced most persons to address her
with a degree of deference and civility very incon-
sistent with the miserable state of her dwelling,
and which, nevertheless, she received with that easy
composure which showed she felt it to be her due.
She had once been beautiful, but her beauty had
been of a bold and masculine cast, such as does not
survive the bloom of youth ; yet her features con-
tinued to express strong sense, deep reflection, and
a character of sober pride, which, as we have already
said of her dress, appeared to argue a conscious
superiority to those of her own rank. It scarce
seemed possible that a face, deprived of the advan-
tage of sight, could have expressed character so
strongly ; but her eyes, which were almost totally
closed, did not, by the display of their sightless
orbs, mar the countenance to which they could add
nothing. She seemed in a ruminating posture,
soothed, perhaps, by the murmurs of the busy tribe
around her, to abstraction, though not to slumber.

Lucy undid the latch of the little garden gate,
and solicited the old woman's attention. " Aly
father, Alice, is come to see you."

" He is welcome. Miss Ashton, and so are you,"
said the old woman, turning and inclining her head
towards her visitors.

53 TALES or MY LANDLORD.

" This is a fine morning for your bee-hives, mo'-
ther," said the Lord Keeper, who, struck with the
outward appearance of Alice, was somewhat curi-
ous to know if her conversation would correspond
with it.

" I believe so, my lord," she replied; "I feel the
air breathe milder than of late."

" You do not," resumed the statesman, " take
charge of these bees yourself, mother ? — How do
you manage them ? "

" By delegates, as kings do their suljjects," re-
sumed Alice ; " and I am fortunate in a prime
minister — Here, Babie."

She wliistled on a small silver call which hung
around her neck, and which at that time was some-
times used to summon domestics, and Babie, a girl
of fifteen, made her appearance from the hut, not
altogether so cleanly arrayed as she would probably
have been had Alice had the use of her eyes, but
with a greater air of neatness than was upon the
whole to have been expected.

" Babie," said her mistress, " offer some bread
and honey to the Lord Keeper and Miss Ashton —
they will excuse your awkwardness, if you use
cleanliness and dispatch."

Babie performed her mistress's command with
the grace which was naturally to have been ex-
pected, moving to and fro with a lobster-like gesture,
her feet and legs tending one way, while her head,
turned in a different direction, was fixed in wonder
upon the laird, who was more frequently heard of
than seen by his tenants and dependents. The
bread and honey, however, deposited on a plantain
leaf, was offered and accepted in all due courtesy.
The Lord Keeper, still retaining the place which

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 53

he had occupied on the decayed trunk of a fallen
tree, looked as if he wished to prolong the inter-
view, but was at a loss how to introduce a suitable
subject.

"You have been long a resident on this prop-
erty ? " he said, after a pause.

" It is now nearly sixty years since I first knew
Eavenswood," answered the old dame, whose con-
versation, though perfectly civil and respectful,
seemed cautiously limited to the unavoidable and
necessary task of replying to Sir William.

"You are not, I should judge by your accent,
of this country originally ? " said the Lord Keeper,
in continuation.

" Xo ; I am by birth an Englishwoman."

" Yet you seem attached to this country as if it
were your own."

" It is, here," replied the blind woman, " that I
have drunk the cup of joy and of sorrow which
Heaven destined for me. I was here the wife of
an upright and affectionate husband for more than
twenty years — I was here the mother of six prom-
ising children — it was here that God deprived me
of all these blessings — it was here they died, and
yonder, by yon ruined chapel, they lie all buried —
I had no country but theirs while they lived — I
have none but theirs now they are no more."

" But your house," said the Lord Keeper, looking
at it, " is miserably ruinous ? "

" Do, my dear father," said Lucy, eagerly, yet
bashIul^^ catching at the hint, "give orders to
make it better, — that is, if you think it proper."

" It will last my time, my dear Miss Lucy," said
the blind woman ; " I would not liave my lord give
himself the least trouble about it."

54 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

"But," said Lucy, "you once had a much better
house, and were rich, and now in your old age to
live in this hovel ! "

" It is as good as I deserve. Miss Lucy ; if my
heart has not broke with what I have suffered, and
seen others suffer, it must have been strong enough,
and the rest of this old frame has no right to call
itself weaker."

"You have probably witnessed many changes,"
said the Lord Keeper ; " but your experience must
have taught you to expect them."

" It has taught me to endure them, my lord," was
the reply.

" Yet you knew that they must needs arrive in
the course of years ? " said the statesman.

" Ay ; as I know that the stump, on or beside
which you sit, once a tall and lofty tree, must needs
one day fall by decay, or by the axe ; yet I hoped
my eyes might not witness the downfall of the tree
which overshadowed my dwelling."

" Do not suppose," said the Lord Keeper, " that
you will lose any interest with me, for looking back
with regret to the days when another family pos-
sessed my estates. You had reason, doubtless, to
love them, and I respect your gratitude. I will
order some repairs in your cottage, and I hope we
shall live to be friends when we know each other
better."

" Those of my age," returned the dame, " make
no new friends. I thank you for your bounty — it
is well intended undoubtedly; but I have all I
want, and I cannot accept more at your lordship's
hands."

" Well, then," continued the Lord Keeper, " at
least allow me to say, that I look upon you as a

THE BKIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 55

woman of sense and education beyond your appear-
ance, and that I hope you will continue to reside
on this property of mine rent-free for your life."

" I hope I shall," said the old dame, composedly ;
" I believe that was made an article in the sale
of Eavenswood to your lordship, though such
a trifling circumstance may have escaped your
recollection."

"I remember — I recollect," said his lordship,
somewhat confused. " I perceive you are too much
attached to your old friends to accept any benefit
from their successor."

" Far from it, my lord ; I am grateful for the
benefits which I decline, and I wish I could pay
you for offering them, better than what I am now
about to say." The Lord Keeper looked at her in
some surprise, but said not a word. " My lord,"
she continued, in an impressive and solemn tone,
" take care what you do ; you are on the brink of
a precipice."

" Indeed ? " said the Lord Keeper, his mind re-
verting to the political circumstances of the coun-
try. " Has any thing come to your knowledge —
any plot or conspiracy ? "

" No, my lord ; those who traffic in such com-
modities do not call into their councils the old,
blind, and infirm. My warning is of another kind.
You have driven matters hard with the house of
Eavenswood. Believe a true tale — they are a fierce
house, and there is danger in dealing with men
when they become desperate."

" Tush," answered the Keeper ; " what has been
between us has been the work of the law, not my
doing ; and to the law they must look, if they would
impugn my proceedings."

56 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

"Ay, but they may think otherwise, and take
the law into their own hand, when they tail of other
means of redress."

" What mean you ? " said the Lord Keeper.
" Young Eavenswood would not have recourse to
personal violence ? "

•* God forbid I should say so ! I know nothing
of the youth but what is honourable and open —
honourable and open, said I ? — I should have added,
free, generous, noble. But he is still a Eavenswood,
and may bide his time. Eemember the fate of
Sir George Lockhart." ^

The Lord Keeper started as she called to his
recollection a tragedy so deep and so recent. The

1 President of the Court of Session. He was pistolled in the
High Street of Edinburgh, by John Chiesley of Dairy, in the
year 1689. The revenge of this desperate man was stimulated
by an opinion that he had sustained injustice in a decreet-arbitral
pronounced by the President, assigning an alimentary provision
of about £93 in favour of his wife and chikiren. He is said
at first to have designed to shoot the judge while attending
upon divine worship, but was diverted by some feeling concern-
ing the sanctity of the place. After the congregation was dis-
missed, he dogged his victim as far as the head of the close on
the south side of the Lawnmarket, in which the President's
house was situated, and shot him dead as he was about to enter
it. This act was done in the presence of numerous spectators.
The assassin made no attempt to fly, but boasted of the deed,
saying, " I have taught tlie President how to do justice." He
had at least given him fair warning, as Jack Cade says on a
similar occasion. The murderer, after undergoing the torture,
by a special act of the Estates of Parliament, was tried before
the Lord Provost of Edinburgh, as high sheriff, and condemned
to be dragged on a hurdle to tlie place of execution, to have
his right hand struck off while he yet lived, and, finally, to be
hung on the gallows with the pistol wherewith he shot the
President tied round his neck This execution took place on
the 3d of April 1689; and the incident was long remembered as
a dreadful instance of what the law books call the perfervidum
tngenuim Scotoriim,

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR 57

old woman proceeded : " (Jhiesley, who did the deed,

was a relative oF Lord Ravenswood. In the hall of
Ravenswood,in my presence,and in that of others, he
avowed publicly his determination to do the cruelty
which he afterwards committed. I could not keep
silence, though to speak it ill became my station.
' You are devising a dreadful crime,' I said, ' for
which you must reckon before the judgment-seat.'
Never shall I forget his look as he replied, ' I must
reckon then for many things, and will reckon for
this also.' Therefore I may well say, beware of
pressing a desperate man with the hand of author-
ity. There is blood of Chiesley in the veins of
Ravenswood, and one drop of it were enough to
fire him in the circumstances in which he is placed
— I say, beware of him."

The old dame had, either intentionally or by ac-
cident, harped aright the fear of the Lord Keeper,
The desperate and dark resource of private assas-
sination, so familiar to a Scottish baron in former
times, had even in the present age been too fre-
quently resorted to under the pressure of unusual
temptation, or where the mind of the actor was pre-
pared for such a crime. Sir William Ashton was
aware of this ; as also that young Ravenswood had
received injuries sufficient to prompt him to that
sort of revenge, which becomes a frequent though
fearful consequence of the partial administration of
justice. He endeavoured to disguise from Alice the
nature of the apprehensions which he entertained ;
but so ineffectually, that a person even of less pene-
tration than nature had endowed her with must
necessarily have been aware that the subject lay
near his bosom. His voice was changed in its ac-
cent as he replied to her, that the Master uf Ravens-

58 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

wood was a man of honour ; and, were it otherwise,
that the fate of Chiesley of Dahy was a sufficient
warning to any one who should dare to assume the
office of avenger of his own imaginary wrongs. And
having hastily uttered these expressions, he rose and
left the place without waiting for a reply.

CHAl'TER Y.

Is she a Capulet ?
O dear account ! my life is my foe's debt.

Shakspeakk.

The Lord Keeper walked for nearly a quarter of a
mile in profound silence. His daughter, naturally
timid, and bred up in those ideas of filial awe and
implicit oLedience which were inculcated upon the
youth of that period, did not venture to interrupt
his meditations.

" Why do you look so pale, Lucy ? " said her father
turning suddenly round and breaking silence.

According to the ideas of the time, which did not
permit a young woman to offer her sentiments on
any subject of importance unless especially required
to do so, Lucy was bound to appear ignorant of the
meaning of all that had passed betwixt Alice and
her father, and imputed the emotion he had observed
to the fear of the wild cattle which grazed in that
part of the extensive chase through which they
were now walking.

Of these animals, the descendants of the savage
herds which anciently roamed free in the Caledonian
forests, it was formerly a point of state to preserve
a few in the parks of the Scottish nobility. Speci-
mens continued within the memory of man to be
kept at least at three houses of distinction, Hamil-
ton, namely, Drumlanrick, and Cumbernauld. They
had degenerated from the ancient race in size and

6o TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

strength, if we are to judge from the accounts of
old chronicles, and from the formidable remains
frequently discovered in bogs and morasses when
drained and laid open. The bull had lost the shaggy
honours of his mane, and the race was small and
light made, in colour a dingy white, or rather a
pale yellow, with black horns and hoofs. They re-
tained, however, in some measure, the ferocity of
their ancestry, could not be domesticated on account
of their antipathy to the human race, and were
often dangerous if approached unguardedly, or wan-
tonly disturbed. It was this last reason which has
occasioned their being extirpated at the places we
have meni^ioned, where probably they would other-
wise havfe been retained as appropriate inhabitants
of a Scottish woodland, and fit tenants for a baronial
forest. A few, if I mistake not, are still preserved
at Chillingham Castle, in Northumberland, the seat
of the Earl of Tankerville.

It was to her finding herself in the vicinity of a
group of three or four of these animals, that Lucy
thought proper to impute tliose signs of fear, which
had arisen in her countenance for a different reason.
For she had been familiarized with the appearance
of the wild cattle, during her walks in the chase ;
and it was not then, as it may be now, a necessary
part of a young lady's demeanour, to indulge in
causeless tremors of the nerves. On the present
occasion, however, she speedily found cause for real
terror.

Lucy had scarcely replied to her father in the
words we have mentioned, and he was just about
to rebuke her supposed timidity, when a bull, sti-
mulated either by the scarlet colour of Miss Ashton's
mantle, or by one of those fits of capricious ferocity

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 6i

to which tlieir dispositions are liable, detached him-
self suddenly from the group which was feeding at
the upper extremity of a grassy glade, that seemed
to lose itself among the crossing and entangled
boughs. The animal approached the intruders on
his pasture ground, at first slowly, pawing the
ground with his hoof, bellowing from time to time,
and tearing up the sand with his horns, as if to
lash himself up to rage and violence.

The Lord Keeper, who observed the animal's
demeanour, was aware that he was about to become
mischievous, and, drawing his daughter's arm under
his own, began to walk fast along the avenue, in
hopes to get out of his sight and his reach. This
was the most injudicious course he could have
adopted, for, encouraged by the appearance of flight,
the bull began to pursue them at full speed. As-
sailed by a danger so imminent, firmer courage than
that of the Lord Keeper might have given way.
But paternal tenderness, " love strong as death,"
sustained him. He continued to support and drag
onward his daughter, until, her fears altogether de-
priving her of the power of flight, she sunk down
by his side ; and when he could no longer assist
her to escape, he turned round and placed himself
betwixt her and the raging animal, which advancing
in full career, its brutal fury enhanced by the rapid-
ity of the pursuit, was now witliin a few yards of
them. The Lord Keeper had no weapons ; his age
and gravity dispensed even with the usual appendage
of a walking sword, — could such appendage have
availed him any thing.

It seemed inevitable that the father or daughter,
or both, should have fallen victims to the impend-
ing danger, when a shot from the neighbouring

62 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

thicket arrested the progress of the animal. He
was so truly struck between the junction of the
spine with the skull, that the wound, which in any
other part of his body might scarce have impeded
his career, proved instantly fatal. Stumbling for-
ward with a hideous bellow, the progressive force of
his previous motion, rather than any operation of
his limbs, carried him up to within three yards
of the astonished Lord Keeper, where he rolled on
the ground, his limbs darkened with the black death-
sweat, and quivering with the last convulsions of
muscular motion.

Lucy lay senseless on the ground, insensible of
the wonderful deliverance which she had experi-
enced. Her father was almost equally stupified, so
rapid and unexpected had been the transition from
the horrid death which seemed inevitable, to per-
fect security. He gazed on the animal, terrible
even in death, with a species of mute and confused
astonishment, which did not permit him distinctly
to understand what had taken place ; and so inac-
curate was his consciousness of what had passed,
that he might have supposed the bull had been
arrested in its career by a thunderbolt, had he not
observed among the branches of the thicket the
figure of a man, with a short gun or musquetoon in
his hand.

This instantly recalled him to a sense of their
situation — a glance at his daughter reminded him
of the necessity of procuring her assistance. He
called to the man, whom he concluded to be one of
his foresters, to give immediate attention to ^liss
Ashton, while he himself hastened to call assist-
ance. The huntsman approached them accordingly,
and the Lord Keeper saw he was a stranger, but

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 63

was too much agitated to make any farther re-
marks. In a few hurried words, he directed the
shooter, as stronger and more active than himself,
to carry the young lady to a neighbouring foun-
tain, while he went back to Alice's hut to procure
more aid.

The man to whose timely interference they had
been so much indebted, did not seem inclined to
leave his good work half iinished. He raised Lucy
from the ground in his arms, and conveying her
through the glades of the forest by paths with
which he seemed well acquainted, stopped not until
he laid her in safety by the side of a plentiful and
pellucid fountain, which had been once covered in,
screened and decorated with architectural orna
ments of a Gothic character. But now the vauU
which had covered it being broken down and riven,
and the Gothic font ruined and demolished, the
stream burst forth from the recess of the earth in
open day, and winded its way among the broken
sculpture and moss-grown stones which lay in con-
fusion around its source.

Tradition, always busy, at least in Scotland, to
grace with a legendary tale a spot in itself interest-
ing, had ascribed a cause of peculiar veneration to
this fountain. A beautiful young lady met one of
the Lords of Eavenswood while hiintins: near this
spot, and, like a second Egeria, had captivated the
affections of the feudal Numa. They met frequently
afterwards, and always at sunset, the charms of
the nymph's mind completing the conquest which
her beauty had begun, and the mystery of the in-
trigue adding zest to both. She always appeared
and disappeared close by the fountain, with which,
therefore, her lover judged she had some inexpli

64 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

cable connexion. She placed certain restrictions
on their intercourse, which also savoured of mystery.
They met only once a week — Friday was the ap-
pointed day — and she explained to the Lord of
Eavenswood, that they were under the necessity
of separating so soon as the bell of a chapel, be-
longing to a hermitage in the adjoining wood, now
long ruinous, should toll the hour of vespers. In
the course of his confession, the Baron of Ravenswood
intrusted the hermit with the secret of this singu-
lar amour, and Father Zachary drew the necessary
and obvious consequence, that his patron was en-
veloped in the toils of Satan, and in danger of
destruction, both to body and soul. He urged these
perils to the Baron with all the force of monkish rhet-
oric, and described, in the most frightful colours,
the real character and person of the apparently
lovely Naiad, whom he hesitated not to denounce
as a limb of the kingdom of darkness. The lover
listened with obstinate incredulity ; and it was not
until worn out by the obstinacy of the anchoret,
that he consented to put the state and condition
of his mistress to a certain trial, and for that pur-
pose acquiesced in Zachary's proposal, that on their
next interview the vespers bell should be rung
half an hour later than usual. The hermit main-
tained and bucklered his opinion, by quotations
from Malleus Malificarum, Sprengerus, Remigius,
and other learned demonologists, that the Evil
One, thus seduced to remain behind the appointed
hour, would assume her true shape, and, having
appeared to her terrified lover as a fiend of hell,
would vanish from him in a flash of sulphurous
lightning. Eaymond of Ravenswood acquiesced in
the experiment, not incurious concerning the issue,

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 65

though confident it would disappoint the expecta-
tions of the hermit.

At the appointed hour the lovers met, and their
interview was protracted beyond that at which they
usually parted, by the delay of the priest to ring
his usual curfew. No change took place upon the
nymph's outward form ; but as soon as the length-
ening shadows made her aware that the usual hour
of the vespers chime was passed, she tore herself
from her lover's arms with a shriek of despair, bid
him adieu for ever, and, plunging into the fountain,
disappeared from his eyes. The bubbles occasioned
by her descent were crimsoned with blood as they
arose, leading the distracted Baron to infer, that
his ill-judged curiosity had occasioned the death of
this interesting and mysterious being. The remorse
which he felt, as well as the recollection of her
charms, proved the penance of his future life, which
he lost in the battle of Flodden not many months
after. But, in memory of his Naiad, he had pre-
viously ornamented the fountain in which she
appeared to reside, and secured its waters from
profanation or pollution, by the small vaulted build-
ing of which the fragments still remained scat-
tered around it. From this period the house of
Eavenswood was supposed to have dated its decay.

Such was the generally received legend, which
some, who would seem wiser than the vulgar, ex-
plained, as obscurely intimating the fate of a beau-
tiful maid of plebeian rank, the mistress of this
Eaymond, whom he slew in a fit of jealousy, and
whose blood was mingled with the waters of the
locked fountain, as it was commonly called. Others
imagined that the tale had a more remote orighi
in the ancient heathen mythology. All however
5

66 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

agreed, that the spot was fatal to the Eavenswood
family ; and that to drink of the waters of the well,
or even approach its brink, was as ominous to a
descendant of that house, as for a Grahame to wear
green, a Bruce to kill a spider, or a St. Clair to
cross the Ord on a Monday, (h)

It w^as on this ominous spot that Lucy Ashton
first drew breath after her long and almost deadly
swoon. Beautiful and pale as the fabulous Kaiad
in the last agony of separation from her lover, she
was seated so as to rest with her back against a
part of the ruined wall, while her mantle, dripping
with the water which her protector had used pro-
fusely to recall her senses, clung to her slender and
beautifully proportioned form.

The first moment of recollection brought to her
mind the danger which had overpowered her senses
— the next called to remembrance that of her
father. She looked around — he was nowhere to
be seen — "My father — my father!" was all that
she could ejaculate.

" Sir William is safe," answered the voice of a
stranger — " perfectly safe, and will be with you
instantly."

" Are you sure of that ? " exclaimed Lucy — " the
bull was close by us — do not stop me — I must go
to seek my father ! "

And she arose with that purpose ; but her
strength was so much exhausted, that, far from
possessing the power to execute her purpose, she
must have fallen against the stone on which she
had leant, probably not without sustaining serious
injury.

The stranger was so near to her, that, without
actually suffering her to fall, he could not avoid

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 67

catching her in his arms, which, however, he did
with a momentary reluctance, very unusual when
youth interposes to prevent beauty from danger.
It seemed as if her weight, slight as it was, proved
too heavy for her young and athletic assistant, for,
without feeling the temptation of detaining her in
his arms even for a single instant, he again placed
her on the stone from which she had risen, and
retreating a few steps, repeated hastily, " Sir
William Ashton is perfectly safe, and will be here
instantly. Do not make yourself anxious on his
account — Fate has singularly preserved him. You,
madam, are exhausted, and must not think of rising
until you have some assistance more suitable than
mine."

Lucy, whose senses were by this time more
effectually collected, was naturally led to look at
the stranger with attention. There was nothing in
his appearance which should have rendered him un-
willing to offer his arm to a young lady who re-
quired support, or which could have induced her to
refuse his assistance ; and she could not help think-
ing, even in that moment, that he seemed cold and
reluctant to offer it. A shooting-dress of dark cloth
intimated the rank of the wearer, though concealed
in part by a large and loose cloak of a dark brown
colour. A Montero cap and a black feather drooped
over the wearer's brow, and partly concealed his
features, which, so far as seen, were dark, regular,
and full of majestic, though somewhat sullen, ex-
pression. Some secret sorrow, or the brooding
spirit of some moody passion, had quenched the
light and ingenuous vivacity of youth in a counte-
nance singularly fitted to display both, and it was
not easy to gaze on the stranger without a secret

68 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

impression either of pity or awe, or at least of doubt
and curiosity allied to both.

The impression which we have necessarily been
long in describing, Lucy felt in the glance of a
moment, and had no sooner encountered the keen
black eyes of the stranger, than her own were bent
on the ground with a mixture of bashful embarrass-
ment and fear. Yet there was a necessity to speak,
or at least she thought so, and in a fluttered accent
she began to mention her wonderful escape, in
which she was sure that the stranger must, under
Heaven, have been her father's protector, and her
own.

He seemed to shrink from her expressions of
gratitude, while he replied abruptly, " I leave you,
madam," — the deep melody of his voice rendered
powerful, but not harsh, by something like a
severity of tone — "I leave you to the protection
of those to whom it is possible you may have this
day been a guardian angel."

Lucy was surprised at the ambiguity of his lan-
guage, and, with a feeling of artless and unaffected
gratitude, began to deprecate the idea of having
intended to give her deliverer any offence, as if such
a thing had been possible. " I have been unfor-
tunate," she said, " in endeavouring to express my
thanks — I am sure it must be so, though I cannot
recollect what I said — but would you but stay till
my father — till the Lord Keeper comes — would
you only permit him to pay you his thanks, and to
enquire your name ? "

" My name is unnecessary," answered the stran-
ger ; " your father — I would rather say Sir "William
Ashton — will learn it soon enough, for all the
pleasure it is likely to afford him."

THE BRIDE OP LAMMERMOOR. 69

" You mistake him," said Lucy earnestly ; " he
will be grateful for my sake and for his own. You
do not know my father, or you are deceiving me
with a story of his safety, when he has already
fallen a victim to the fury of that animal."

When she had caught this idea, she started from
the ground, and endeavoured to press towards the
avenue in which the accident had taken place, while
the stranger, though he seemed to hesitate between
the desire to assist and the wish to leave her, was
obliged, in common humanity, to oppose her both
by entreaty and action.

" On the word of a gentleman, madam, I tell
you the truth ; your father is in perfect safety ; you
will expose yourself to injury if you venture back
where the herd of wild cattle grazed. — If you will
go " — for, having once adopted the idea that her
father was still in danger, she pressed forward in
spite of him — " If you loill go, accept my arm,
though I am not perhaps the person who can w^ith
most propriety offer you support."

But, without heeding this intimation, Lucy took
him at his word. " 0 if you be a man," she said,
— "if you be a gentleman, assist me to find my
father ! You shall not leave me — you must go
with me — he is dying perhaps while we are talk-
ing here ! "

Then, without listening to excuse or apology, and
holding fast by the stranger's arm, though uncon-
scious of any thing save the support which it gave,
and without which she could not have moved,
mixed with a vague feeling of preventing his escape
from her, she was urging, and almost dragging him
forward, when Sir William Asliton came up, fol-
lowed by the female attendant of blind Alice, and

70 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

by two wood-cutters, whom he had summoned from
their occupation to his assistance. His joy at see-
ing his daughter safe, overcame the surprise with
which he would at another time have beheld her
hanging as familiarly on the arm of a stranger, as
she might have done upon his own.

" Lucy, my dear Lucy, are you safe ? — are you
well ? " were the only words that broke from him
as he embraced her in ecstasy.

" I am well, sir, thank God ! and still more that
I see you so; — but this gentleman," she said, quit-
ting his arm, and shrinking from him, "what must
he think of me ? " and her eloquent blood, flushing
over neck and brow, spoke how much she was
ashamed of the freedom with which she had craved,
and even compelled his assistance.

"This gentleman," said Sir William Ashton,
" will, I trust, not regret the trouble we have given
him, when I assure him of the gratitude of the
Lord Keeper for the greatest service which one
man ever rendered to another — for the life of my
child — for my own life, which he has saved by his
bravery and presence of mind. He will, I am sure,
permit us to request "

" Eequest nothing of ME, my lord," said the
stranger, in a stern and peremptory tone ; " I am
the Master of Eavenswood."

There was a dead pause of surprise, not unmixed
with less pleasant feelings. The Master wrapt
himself in his cloak, made a haughty inclination
towards Lucy, muttering a few words of courtesy,
as indistinctly heard as they seemed to be reluc-
tantly uttered, and, turning from them, was imme-
diately lost in the thicket.

" The Master of Kavenswood ! " said the Lord

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. f\

Keeper, when he had recovered his momentary
astonishment — • '• Hasten after him — stop him —
beg him to speak to me for a single moment."

The two foresters accordingly set off in pursuit
of the stranger. They speedily reappeared, and, in
an embarrassed and awkward manner, said the gen-
tleman would not return. The Lord Keeper took
one of the fellows aside, and questioned him more
closely what the Master of Ravenswood had said.

" He just said he wadna come back," said the
man, with the caution of a prudent Scotchman, who
cared not to be the bearer of an unpleasant errand.

" He said something more, sir," said the Lord
Keeper, " and 1 insist on knowing what it was."

" Why, then, my lord," said the man, looking
down, " he said — But it wad be nae pleasure to your
lordship to hear it, for I daresay the Master meant
nae ill."

" That's none of your concern, sir ; I desire to
hear the very words."

" Weel, then," replied tL, man, " he said, Tell Sir
William Ashton, that the next time he and I for-
gather, he will not be half sae blithe of our meeting
as of our parting."

" Very well, sir," said the Lord Keeper, " I be-
lieve he alludes to a wager we have on our hawks
— it is a matter of no consequence,"

He turned to his daughter, who was by this time
so much recovered as to be able to walk home. But
the effect which the various recollections, connected
with a scene so terrific, made upon a mind which
was susceptible in an extreme degree, was more
permanent than the injury which her nerves had
sustained. Visions of terror, both in sleep and in
waking reveries, recalled to her the form of the

n TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

furious animal, and the dreadful bellow with which
he accompanied his career ; and it was always the
image of the Master of Ravenswood, with his native
nobleness of countenance and form, that seemed to
interpose betwixt her and assured death. It is,
perhaps, at all times dangerous for a young person
to suffer recollection to dwell repeatedly, and with
too much complacency, on the same individual ; but
in Lucy's situation it was almost unavoidable. She
had never happened to see a young man of mien
and features so romantic and so striking as young
Ravenswood; but had she seen an hundred his
equals or his superiors in those particulars, no one
else could have been linked to her heart by the
strong associations of remembered danger and es-
cape, of gratitude, wonder, and curiosity. I say cu-
riosity, for it is likely that the singularly restrained
and unaccommodating manners of the Master of
Ravenswood, so much at variance with the natu-
ral expression of his features and grace of his de-
portment, as they excited wonder by the contrast,
had their effect in riveting her attention to the
recollection. She knew little of Ravenswood, or
the disputes which had existed betwixt her father
and his, and perhaps could in her gentleness of
mind hardly have comprehended the angry and bit-
ter passions which they had engendered. But she
knew that he was come of noble stem ; was poor,
though descended from the noble and the wealthy ;
and she felt that she could sympathise with the feel-
ings of a proud mind, which urged him to recoil
from the proffered gratitude of the new proprietors
of his father's house and domains. Would he have
equally shunned their acknowledgments and avoided
their intimacy, had her father's request been urged

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 73

more mildly, less abruptly, and softened with the
grace which women so well know how to throw
into their manner, when they mean to mediate be-
twixt the headlong passions of the ruder sex ? This
was a perilous question to ask her own mind —
perilous both in the idea and in its consequences.

Lucy Ashton, in short, was involved in those
mazes of the imagination which are most danger-
ous to the young and the sensitive. Time, it is
true, absence, change of scene and new faces, might
probably have destroyed the illusion in her instance
as it has done in many others ; but her residence
remained solitary, and her mind without those
means of dissipating her pleasing visions. This
solitude was chieHy owing to the absence of Lady
Ashton, who was at this time in Edinburgh, watch-
ing the progress of some state-intrigue ; the Lord
Keeper only received society out of policy or os-
tentation, and was by nature rather reserved and
unsociable ; and thus no cavalier appeared to rival
or to obscure the ideal picture of chivalrous excel-
lence which Lucy had pictured to herself in the
Master of Eavenswood.

While Lucy indulged in these dreams, she made
frequent visits to old blind Alice, hoping it would
be easy to lead her to talk on the subject, which at
present she had so imprudently admitted to occupy
so large a portion of her thoughts. But Alice
did not in this particular gratify her wishes and
expectations. She spoke readily, and with pathe-
tic feeling, concerning the family in general, but
seemed to observe an especial and cautious silence
on the subject of the present representative. The
little she said of him was not altogether so favour-
able as Lucy had anticipated. She hinted that he

74 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

was of a stern and unforgiving character, more
ready to resent than to pardon injuries ; and Lucy
combined with great alarm the hints which she now
dropped of these dangerous qualities, with Alice's
advice to her father, so emphatically given, " to
beware of Eavejiswood."

But that very Eavenswood, of whom such un-
just suspicions had been entertained, had, almost
immediately after they had been uttered, confuted
them, by saving at once her father's life and her
own. Had he nourished such black revenge as
Alice's dark hints seemed to indicate, no deed of
active guilt was necessary to the full gratification
of that evil passion. He needed but to have with-
held for an instant his indispensable and effective
assistance, and the object of his resentment must
have perished, without any direct aggression on
his part, by a death equally fearful and certain. She
conceived, therefore, that some secret prejudice, or
the suspicions incident to age and misfortune, had
led Alice to form conclusions injurious to the cha-
racter, and irreconcilable both with the generous
conduct and noble features of the Master of Eav-
enswood. And in this belief Lucy reposed her
hope, and went on weaving her enchanted web of
fairy tissue, as beautiful and transient as the film
of the gossamer, when it is pearled with the morn-
ing dew, and glimmering to the suu.

Her father, in the meanwhile, as well as the Mas-
ter of Eavenswood, were making reflections, as
frequent though more solid than those of Lucy,
upon the singular event which had taken place. The
Lord Keeper's first task, when he returned home,
was to ascertain by medical advice that his daugh-
ter had sustained no injury from the dangerous and

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 75

alarming situation in which she had been placed.
Satisfied on this topic, he proceeded to revise the
memoranda which he had taken down from the
mouth of the person employed to interrupt the fu-
neral service of the late Lord Eavenswood. Bred
to casuistry, and well accustomed to practise the
ambidexter ingenuity of the bar, it cost him little
trouble to soften the features of the tumult which
he had been at first so anxious to exaggerate. He
preached to his colleagues of the Privy Council the
necessity of using conciliatory measures with young
men, whose blood and temper were hot, and their
experience of life limited. He did not hesitate to
attribute some censure to the conduct of the officer,
as having been unnecessarily irritating.

These were the contents of his public dispatches.
The letters which he wrote to those private
friends into whose management the matter was
likely to fall, were of a yet more favourable tenor.
He represented that lenity in this case would be
equally politic and popular, whereas, considering
the high respect with which the rites of interment
are regarded in Scotland, any severity exercised
against the Master of Ravenswood for protecting
those of his father from interruption, would be on
all sides most unfavourably construed. And, finally,
assuming the language of a generous and high-
spirited man, he made it his particular request that
this affair should be passed over without severe
notice. He alluded with delicacy to the predica-
ment in which he himself stood with young Ravens-
wood, as having succeeded in the long train of
litigation by which the fortunes of that noble house
had been so much reduced, and confessed it would
be most peculiarly acceptable to his own feelings.

76 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

could he find means in some sort to counterbalance
the disadvantages which he had occasioned the
family, though only in the prosecution of his just
and lawful rights. He therefore made it his par-
ticular and personal request that the matter should
have no farther consequences, and insinuated a
desire that he himself should have the merit of
having put a stop to it by his favourable report and
intercession. It was particularly remarkable, that,
contrary to his uniform practice, he made no spe-
cial communication to Lady Ashton upon the sub-
ject of the tumult ; and although he mentioned the
alarm which Lucy had received from one of the
wild cattle, yet he gave no detailed account of an
incident so interesting and terrible.

There was much surprise among Sir William
Ashton's political friends and colleagues on receiv-
ing letters of a tenor so unexpected. On comparing
notes together, one smiled, one put up his eyebrows,
a third nodded acquiescence in the general wonder,
and a fourth asked, if they were sure these were
all the letters the Lord Keeper had written on the
subject. " It runs strangely in my mind, my lords,
that none of these advices contain the root of the
matter."

But no secret letters of a contrary nature had been
received, although the question seemed to imply the
possibility of their existence.

" AVell," said an old grey-headed statesman, who
had contrived, by shifting and trimming, to main-
tain his post at the steerage through all the
changes of course which the vessel had held for
thirty years, " I thought Sir William would hae
verified the auld Scottish saying, ' As soon comes the
lamlj's .skin to market as the auld tup's.'"

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 77

"We must please him after his own fashion," said
another, " though it be an unlooked-for one."

"A wilful man maua hae his way," answered the
old counsellor.

" The Keeper vail rue this before year and day
are out," said a third; "the Master of Kavenswood
is the lad to wind him a pirn."^

" Why, what would you do, my lords, with the
poor young fellow ? " said a noble Marquis present ;
" the Lord Keeper has got all his estates — he has
not a cross to bless himself with."

On which the ancient Lord Turntippet replied,

" If lie liasna gear to fine,
He lias sliins to pine —

And that was our way before the Eevolution —
Luitur cum persona, qui luere non potest cum cru-
mena ^ — Hegh, my lords, that's gude law Latin."

" I can see no motive," replied the Marquis, " that
any noble lord can have for urging this matter far-
ther ; let the Lord Keeper have the power to deal
in it as he pleases."

" Agree, agree — remit to the Lord Keeper, with
any other person for fashion's sake — Lord Hirple-
hooly, who is bed-ridden — one to be a quorum —
Make your entry in the minutes, Mr. Clerk — And
now, my lords, there is that young scattergood, the
Laird of Bucklaw's fine to be disponed upon — I
suppose it goes to my Lord Treasurer ? "

" Shame be in my meal-poke, then," exclaimed
Lord Turntippet, " and your hand aye in the nook

1 Wind him a pirn, proverbial for preparing a troublesome
business for some person.

2 I. e. Let him pay with his person who cannot pay with his
purse.

78 TALES OF MY LA^'DLORD.

of it ! I had set that down for a by bit between
meals for my sell."

" To use one of your favourite saws, my lord,"
replied the Marquis, " you are like the miller's dog,
that licks his lips before the bag is untied — the
man is not fined yet."

" But that costs but twa skarts of a pen," said
Lord Turntippet ; " and surely there is nae noble
lord that will presume to say, that I, wha hae com-
plied wi' a' compliances, tane all manner of tests,
abjured all that was to be abjured, and sworn a'
that was to be sworn, for these thirty years by past,
sticking fast by my duty to the state through good
report and bad report, shouldna hae something now
and then to synd my mouth wi' after sic drouthy
wark ? Eh ? "

" It would be very unreasonable indeed, my lord,"
replied the Marquis, " had we either thought that
your lordship's drought was quenchable, or observed
any thing stick in your throat that requii'ed wash-
ing down."

And so we close the scene on the Privy Council
of that period.

CHAPTER YI.

E'or this are all these warriors come,

To hear an idle tale ;
And o'er our death-accustom'd arms

Sluill silly tears prevail ?

Henry Mackenzie.

On the evening of the day when the Lord Keeper
and his daughter were saved from such imminent
peril, two strangers were seated in the most private
apartment of a small obscure inn, or ratlier alehouse,
called the Tod's Den, about three or four miles from
the Castle of Eavenswood, and as far from the ruin-
ous tower of "Wolf's Crag, betwixt which two places
it was situated.

One of these strangers was about forty years of
age, tall, and thin in the flanks, with an aquiline nose,
dark penetrating eyes, and a shrewd but sinister
cast of countenance. The other was about fifteen
years younger, short, stout, ruddy-faced, and red-
haired, with an open, resolute, and cheerful eye, to
which careless and fearless freedom, and inward
daring, gave fire and expression, notwithstanding
its light grey colour. A stoup of wine, (for in those
days it was served out from the cask in pewter
flagons,) was placed on the table, and each had his
quaigh or bicker ^ before him. But there was little

1 Drinking cups of different sizes, made out of staves hooped
together. The quaigh was used chiefly for drinking wine or
brandy ; it might hold about a gill, and was often composed of
rare wood, and curiously ornamented with silver.

8o TALES OY MY LANDLORD.

appearance of conviviality. With folded arms, and
looks of anxious expectation, they eyed each other
in silence, each wrapt in his own thoughts, and
holding no communication with his neighbour.

At length the younger broke silence by exclaim-
ing, "What the foul fiend can detain the Master so
long ? he must have miscarried in his enterprise. —
Why did you dissuade me from going with him ?"

" One man is enough to right his own wrong,"
said the taller and older personage ; " we venture
our lives for him in coming thus far on such an
errand."

"You are but a craven after all, Craigengelt,"
answered the younger, " and that's what many folk
have thought you before now."

" But what none has dared to tell me," said
Craigengelt, laying his hand on the hilt of his
sword ; " and, but that I hold a hasty man no
better than a fool, I would " — he paused for his
companion's answer.

" Would you ? " said the other coolly ; " and why
do you not then ? "

Craigengelt drew his cutlass an inch or two, and
then returned it with violence into the scabbard —
" Because there is a deeper stake to be played for,
than the lives of twenty harebrained gowks like
you."

" You are right there," said his companion, " for
if it were not that these forfeitures, and that last
fine that the old driveller Turntippet is gaping for,
and which, I daresay, is laid on by this time, have
fairly driven me out of house and home, I were a
coxcomb and a cuckoo to boot, to trust your fair
promises of getting me a commission in the Irish
brigade, — what have I to do with the Irish brigade ?

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 8i

I am a plain Scotchman, as my father was before
me ; and my grand-aunt, Lady Girnington, cannot
live for ever."

"Ay, Bucklaw," observed Craigengelt, "but she
may live for many a long day ; and for your father,
he had land and living, kept himself close from
wadsetters and money-lenders, paid each man his
due, and lived on his own."

"And whose fault is it that I have not done so
too ? " said Bucklavv' — " whose but the devil's and
yours, and such like as you, that have led me to
the far end of a fair estate ? and now I shall be
obliged, I suppose, to shelter and shift about like
yourself — live one week upon a line of secret in-
telligence from Saint Germains — another upon a
report of a rising in the Highlands — get my break-
fast and morning-draught of sack from old Jacobite
ladies, and give them locks of my old wig for the
Chevalier's hair — second my friend in his quarrel
till he comes to the field, and then flinch from him
lest so important a political agent should perish
from the way. All this I must do for bread, be-
sides calling myself a captain!"

" You think you are making a fine speech now,"
said Craigengelt, " and showing much wit at my ex-
pense. Is starving or hanging better than the life
I am obliged to lead, because the present fortunes of
the king cannot sufficiently support his envoys ? "

" Starving is honester, Craigengelt, and hanging
is like to be the end on't — But what you mean to
make of this poor fellow Eavenswood, I know not
— he has no money left, any more than I — his
lands are all pawned and pledged, and the interest
eats up the rents, and is not satisfied, and what do
you hope to make by meddling in his affairs ? "

6

82 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

" Content yourself, Bucklaw ; I know my busi-
ness," replied Craigengelt. " Besides that his name,
and his father's services in 1689, will make such an
acquisition sound well both at Versailles and Saint
Germains — you will also please be informed, that
the Master of Ravenswood is a very different kind
of a young fellow from you. He has parts and
address, as well as courage and talents, and will
present himself abroad like a young man of head
as well as heart, who knows something more than
the speed of a horse or the flight of a hawk. I have
lost credit of late, by bringing over no one that had
sense to know more than how to unliarbour a stag,
or take and reclaim an eyess. The Master has edu-
cation, sense, and penetration."

" And yet is not wise enough to escape the tricks
of a kidnapper, Craigengelt ? " replied the younger
man. "But don't be angry; you know you will
not fight, and so it is as well to leave your hilt in
peace and quiet, and tell me in sober guise how you
drew the Master into your confidence ? "

" By flattering his love of vengeance, Bucklaw,"
answered Craigengelt. " He has always distrusted
me, but I watched my time, and struck while his
temper was red-hot with the sense of insult and of
wrong. He goes now to expostulate, as he says,
and perhaps thinks, with Sir William Ashton. I
say, that if they meet, and the lawyer puts him to
his defence, the Master will kill him ; for he had
that sparkle in his eye which never deceives you
when you would read a man's purpose. At any
rate, he will give him such a bullying as will be
construed into an assault on a privy-couucillor; so
there will be a total breach betwixt him and govern-
ment; Scotland will be too hot for him, France

THE BRIDE OF L.IMMERMOOR. 83

will gain him, and we w411 all set sail together in
the French brig L'Espoir, which is hovering for us
off Eyemouth."

" Content am I," said Bucklaw ; " Scotland has
little left that I care about; and if carrying the
Master with us will get us a better reception in
France, why, so be it, a God's name. I doubt our
own merits will procure us slender preferment ; and
I trust he will send a ball through the Keeper's
head before he joins us. One or two of these
scoundrel statesmen should be shot once a-year,
just to keep the others on their good behaviour."

" That is very true," replied Craigengelt ; " and
it reminds me that I must go and see that our horses
have been fed, and are in readiness ; for, should
such deed be done, it will be no time for grass to
grow beneath their heels." He proceeded as far as
the door, tlien turned back with a look of earnest-
ness, and said to Bucklaw, " Whatever should come
of this business, I am sure you will do me the jus-
tice to remember, that I said nothing to the Mas-
ter which could imply my accession to any act of
violence which he may take it into his head to
commit."

" No, no, not a single word like accession," re-
plied Bucklaw ; "you know too well the risk be-
longing to these two terrible words, art and part."
Then, as if to himself, he recited the following
lines :

" The dial spoke not, but it made shrewd signs,
And pointed full upon the stroke of murder."

"What is that you are talking to yourself?"
said Craigengelt, turning back with some anxiety.

84 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

" Xothing — only two lines I have heard upon
the stage," replied his companion.

" Bucklaw," said Craigengelt, " I sometimes
think you should have been a stage-player your-
self ; all is fancy and frolic with you."

" I have often thought so myself," said Bucklaw.
" I believe it would be safer than acting with you
in the Fatal Conspiracy. — But away, play your
own part, and look after the horses like a groom
as you are. — A play-actor — a stage-player ! " be
repeated to himself ; " that would have deserved a
stab, but that Craigengelt's a coward — And yet I
should like the profession well enough — Stay — let
me see — ay — I would come out in Alexander —

Thus from tlie grave I rise to tiave my love,
Draw all your SAvonls, and quick as liglitning move ;
When I rush on, sure none will dare to stay,
'T is love commands, and glory leads the 'w&y."

As with a voice of thumler, and his hand upon
his sword, Bucklaw repeated the ranting couplets
of poor Lee (i), Craigengelt re-entered with a face of
alarm.

" We are undone, Bucklaw ! the Master's led
liorse has cast himself over his halter in the stable,
and is dead lame — his hackney will be set up with
the day's work, and now he has no fresh horse ; he
will never get off."

" Egad, there will be no moving with the speed
of lightning this bout," said Bucklaw, drily. " But
stay, you can give him yours."

" What ! and be taken myself ? I thank you for
the proposal," said Craigengelt.

" Why," replied Bucklaw, " if the Lord Keeper
should have met with a mischance, which for mj

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 85

part, I cannot suppose, for the Master is not the
lad to shoot an old and unarmed man — but if
there should have been a fray at the Castle, you
are neither art nor part in it, you know, so have
nothing to fear."

" True, true," answered the other, with embar-
rassment ; " but consider my commission from
Saint Germains."

" Which many men think is a commission of
your own making, noble captain. — Well, if you will
not give him your horse, why, d — n it, he must
have mine."

" Yours ? " said Craigengelt.

" Ay, mine," repeated Bucklaw ; " it shall never
be said that I agreed to back a gentleman in a little
affair of honour, and neither helped him on with it
nor off from it."

" You will give him your horse ? and have you
considered the loss ? "

" Loss ! why, G-rey Gilbert cost me twenty Jaco-
buses, that's true ; but then his hackney is worth
something, and his Black ]\Ioor is worth twice as
much v/ere he sound, and I know ho v to handle
him. Take a fat sucking mastiff whelp, flay and
bowel him, stuff the body full of black and grey
snails, roast a reasonable time, and baste with oil of
spikenard, saffron, cinnamon and honey, anoint with
the dripping, working it in "

" Yes, Bucklaw ; but in the meanwhile, before
the sprain is cured, nay, before the whelp is roasted,
you will be caught and hung. Depend on it,
the chase will be hard after Ravenswood. I wish
we had made our place of rendezvous nearer to the
coast."

" On my faith, then," said Bucklaw, " I had best

86 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

go off just now, and leave my horse for him — Stay,
stay, he comes, I hear a horse's feet."

" Are you sure there is only one ? " said Craig-
engelt ; " I fear there is a chase ; I think I hear
three or four galloping together — I am sure I hear
more horses than one."

" Pooh, pooh, it is the wench of the house clat-
tering to the well in her pattens. By my faith,
Captain, you should give up both your captainship
and your secret service, for you are as easily scared
as a wild-goose. But here comes the Master alone,
and looking as gloomy as a night in November."

The Master of Ravenswood entered the room
accordingly, his cloak muffled around him, his arms
folded, his looks stern, and at the same time de-
jected. He flung his cloak from him as he entered,
threw himself upon a chair, and appeared sunk in
a profound reverie.

" What has happened ? AYhat have you done ? "
was hastily demanded by Craigengelt and Bucklaw
in the same moment.

" Nothing," was the short and sullen answer.

" Nothing ? and left us, determined to call the
old villain to account for all the injuries that you,
we, and the country, have received at his hand ?
Have you seen him ? "

" I have," replied the Master of Ravenswood.

" Seen him ? and come away without settling
scores which have been so long due ? " said Buck-
law ; " I would not have expected that at the hand
of the Master of Ravenswood."

"No matter what you expected," replied Ra-
venswood ; " it is not to you, sir, that I shall be dis-
posed to render any reason for my conduct."

" Patience, Bucklaw," said Craigengelt, interrupt-

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 87

ing his compauion, who seemed about to make an
angry reply. " The Master has been interrupted
in his purpose by some accident ; but he must
excuse the anxious curiosity of friends, who are de-
voted to his cause like you and me."

" Friends, Captain Craigengelt ! " retorted Eavens-
wood, haughtily ; " I am ignorant what familiarity
has passed betwixt us to entitle you to use that ex-
pression. I think our friendship amounts to this,
that we agreed to leave Scotland together so soon
as I should have visited the alienated mansion of
my fathers, and had an interview with its present
possessor, I will not call him proprietor."

" Very true, Master," answered Bucklaw ; " and
as we thouglit you had a mind to do something to
put your neck in jeopardy, Craigie and I very cour-
teously agreed to tarry for you, although ours might
run some risk in consequence. As to Craigie, in-
deed, it does not very much signify, he had gallows
written on his brow in the hour of his birth ; but I
should not like to discredit my parentage by coming
to such an end in another man's cause."

" Gentlemen," said the Master of Ravenswood,
" I am sorry if I have occasioned you any incon-
venience, but I must claim the right of judging what
is best for my own affairs, without rendering expla-
nations to any one. I have altered my mind, and do
not design to leave the country this season."

" Not to leave the country. Master ! " exclaimed
Craigengelt. " Not to go over, after all the trouble
and expense I have incurred — after all the risk of
discovery, and the expense of freight and demur-
rage .' "

" Sir," replied the Master of Ravens wood, " \yhen
I designed to leave this country in this haste, I

88 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

made use of your obliging offer to procure me means
of conveyance ; but I do not recollect that I pledged
myself to go off, if I found occasion to alter my
mind. For your trouble on my account, I am sorry,
and I thank you ; your expense," he added, putting
his hand into his pocket, " admits a more solid com-
pensation — freight and demurrage are matters with
which I am unacquainted. Captain Craigengelt, but
take my purse and pay yourself according to your
own conscience." And accordingly he tendered a
purse with some gold in it to the soi-disant captain.

But here Bucklaw interposed in his turn. " Your
fingers, Craigie, seem to itch for that same piece
of green net-work," said he ; " but I make my vow
to God, that if they offer to close upon it, I will
chop them off with my whinger. Since the Master
has changed his mind, I suppose we need stay here
no longer ; but in the first place I beg leave to tell
him "

"Tell him any thing you will," said Craigengelt,
" if you will first allow me to state the inconven-
iences to which he will expose himself by quit-
ting our society, to remind him of the obstacles to
his remaining here, and of the difficulties attending
his proper introduction at Versailles and Saint Ger-
mains, without the countenance of those who have
established useful connexions."

"Besides forfeiting the friendship," said Buck-
law, " of at least one man of spirit and honour."

" Gentlemen," said Ravenswood, " permit me
once more to assure you, that you have been
pleased to attach to our temporary connexion more
importance than I ever meant that it should have.
When I repair to foreign courts, I shall not need
the introduction of an intriguing adventurer, nor is

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 89

it necessary for me to set value on the friendship
of a hot-headed bully." '\Vith these words, and
without waiting for an answer, he left the apart-
ment, remounted his horse, and was heard to ride
off.

" Mortbleu ! " said Captain Craigengelt, " my re-
cruit is lost !"

" Ay, Captain," said Bucklaw, " the salmon is off
with hook and all. But I will after him, for I have
had more of his insolence than I can well digest."

Craigengelt offered to accompany him ; but Buck-
law replied, " Xo, no, Captain, keep you the cheek of
the chimney-nook till I come back ; it's good sleep-
ing in a haill skin.

Little kens tlie aiild wife tliat sits by the fire,
How cauld the -wind blaws in hurle-burle swire."

And singing as he went, he left the apartment.

CHAPTEE VII.

Kow, Billy Bewick, keep good heart,

Aud of thy talking let me be ;
But if thou art a man, as 1 am sure thou art,

Come over the dike and figlit with me.

Old Ballad.

The Master of Eavenswood had mounted the am-
bling hackney which he before rode, on finding the
accident which had h.appened to his led horse, and,
for the animal's ease, was proceeding at a slow pace
from the Tod's Den towards his old tower of AVolf's
Crag, when he heard the galloping of a horse behind
him, and, looking back, perceived that he was pur-
sued by young Bucklaw, who had been delayed a
few minutes in the pursuit by the irresistible temp-
tation of giving the hostler at the Tod's Den some
recipe for treating the lame horse. This brief de-
lay he had made up by hard galloping, and now
overtook the Master where the road traversed a
waste moor. " Halt, sir," cried Bucklaw ; " I am no
political agent — no Captain Craigengelt, whose life
is too important to be hazarded in defence of his
honour. I am Frank Hayston of Bucklaw, and no
man injures me by word, deed, sign, or look, but he
must render me an account of it."

" This is all very well, Mr. Hayston of Bucklaw,"
replied the Master of Eavenswood, in a tone the
most calm and indifferent ; " but I have no quarrel
with you, and desire to have none. Our roads
homewa»d, as well as our roads through life, lie in

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 91

different directions ; there is no occasion for us
crossing each other."

" Is there not ? " said Bucklaw, impetuously. " By
Heaven ! but I say that there is, though — you called
us intriguing adventurers."

" Be correct in your recollection, Mr. Hayston ; it
was to your companion only I applied that epithet,
and you know him to be no better."

" And what then ? He was my companion for the
time, and no man shall insult my companion, right
or wrong, while he is in my company."

" Then, Mr. Hayston," replied Ravens wood, with
the same composure, " you should choose your so-
ciety better, or you are like to have much work
in your capacity of their champion. Go home,
sir, sleep, and have more reason in your wrath
to-morrow."

" Xot so. Master, you have mistaken your man ;
high airs and wise saws shall not carry it off thus.
Besides, you termed me bully, and you shall retract
the word before we part "

" Faith, scarcely," said Eavenswood, " unless you
show me better reason for thinking myself mis-
taken than you are now producing."

" Then, ^Master," said Bucklaw, " though I should
be sorry to offer it to a man of your quality, if you
will not justify your incivility, or retract it, or name
a place of meeting, you must here undergo the hard
word and the hard blow."

"Neither will be necessary," said Eavenswood;
" I am satisfied with what I have done to avoid an
affair with you. If you are serious, this place will
serve as well as another."

" Dismount then, and draw," said Bucklaw, set-
ting him an example. " I always thought and said

92 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

you were a pretty man ; I should be sorry to report
you otherwise."

"You shall have no reason, sir," said Ravens-
wood, alighting, and putting himself into a posture
of defence.

Their swords crossed, and the combat commenced
with great spirit on the part of Bucklaw, who was
well accustomed to affairs of the kind, and distin-
guished by address and dexterity at his weapon.
In the present case, however, he did not use his
skill to advantage ; for, having lost temper at the
cool and contemptuous manner in which the Master
of Eavenswood had long refused, and at length
granted him satisfaction, and urged by his impa-
tience, he adopted the part of an assailant with in-
considerate eagerness. The Master, with equal skill,
and much greater composure, remained chiefly on the
defensive, and even declined to avail himself of one
or two advantages afforded him by the eagerness of
his adversary. At length, in a desperate lunge,
which he followed with an attempt to close. Buck-
law's foot slipped, and he fell on the short grassy
turf on which they were fighting. " Take your life,
sir," said the Master of Eavenswood, " and mend it,
if you can."

" It would be but a cobbled piece of work, I fear,"
said Bucklaw, rising slowly and gathering up his
sword, much less disconcerted with the issue of the
combat than could have been expected from the im-
petuosity of his temper. " I thank you for my life,
Master," he pursued. " There is my hand, I bear
no ill-will to you, either for my bad luck or your
better swordmanship."

The Master looked steadily at him for an instant,
then extended his hand to him. — " Bucklaw,"

THE BRIDE OE LAMMERMOOR. 93

he said, " you are a generous fellow, and I have done
you wrong. I heartily ask your pardon for the ex-
pression which offended you ; it was hastily and in-
cautiously uttered, and I am convinced it is totally
misapplied."

" Are you indeed. Master ? " said Bucklaw, his face
resuming at once its natural expression of light-
hearted carelessness and audacity ; " that is more
than I expected of you ; for. Master, men say you
are not ready to retract your opinions and your
language."

"Not when I have well considered them," said
the Master.

" Then you are a little wiser than I am, for I al-
ways give my friend satisfaction first, and explana-
tion afterwards. If one of us falls, all accounts are
settled ; if not, men are never so ready for peace as
after war. — But what does that bawling brat of a
boy want ? " said Bucklaw. " I wish to Heaven he
had come a few minutes sooner ! and yet it must
have been ended some time, and perhaps this way is
as well as any other."

As he spoke, the boy he mentioned came up,
cudgelling an ass, on which he was mounted, to the
top of its speed, and sending, like one of Ossian's
heroes, his voice before him, — " Gentlemen, — gen-
tlemen, save yourselves ! for the gudewife bade us
tell ye there were folk in her house had taen Cap-
tain Craigengelt, and were seeking for Bucklaw, and
that ye behoved to ride for it."

" By my faith, and that's very true, my man," said
Bucklaw ; " and there's a silver sixpence for your
news, and I would give any man twice as much
would tell me which way I should ride."

" That will I, Bucklaw," said Kavenswood ; " ride

94 TALES or MY LANDLORD.

home to Wolf's Crag with me. There are places in
the old tower where you might lie hid, were a thous-
and men to seek you."

"But that will bring you into trouble yourself,
Master ; and unless you be in the Jacobite scrape al-
ready, it is quite needless for me to drag you in."

" Not a whit ; I have nothing to fear."

" Then I will ride with you blithely, for, to say
the truth, I do not know the rendezvous that Craigie
was to guide us to this night ; and I am sure that,
if he is taken, he will tell all the truth of me, and
twenty lies of you, in order to save himself from
the withie."

They mounted, and rode off in company accord-
ingly, striking off the ordinary road, and holding
their way by wild moorish unfrequented paths, with
which the gentlemen were well acquainted from the
exercise of the chase, but through which others
would have had much difficulty in tracing their
course. They rode for some time in silence, making
such haste as the condition of Eavenswood's horse
permitted, until night having gradually closed
around them, they discontinued their speed, both
from the difficulty of discovering their path, and
from the hope that they were beyond the reach of
pursuit or observation.

"And now that we have drawn bridle a bit,"
said Bucklaw, '■ I would fain ask you a question,
Master."

" Ask, and welcome," said Eavenswood, " but for-
give my not answering it, unless I think proper."

" Well, it is simply this," answered his late anta-
gonist, — " What, in the name of old Sathan, could
make you, who stands so highly on your reputation,
think for a moment of drawing up with such a

THE BRIDE OE LAMMERMOOR. 95

rogue as Craigengelt, and such a scape-grace as folk
call Bucklaw ? "

" Simply, because I was desperate, and sought
desperate associates."

"And what made you break off from us at the
nearest ? " again demanded Bucklaw.

" Because I had changed my mind," said the Mas-
ter, " and renounced my enterprise, at least for the
present. And now that I have answered your ques-
tions fairly and frankly, tell me what makes you
associate with Craigengelt, so much beneath you
both in birth and in spirit ? "

" In plain terms," answered Bucklaw, " because I
am a fool, who have gambled away my land in these
times. My grand-aunt, I^ady Girnington, has taen
a new tack of life, I think, and I could only hope to
get something by a change of government. Craigie
was a sort of gambling acquaintance ; he saw my
condition ; and, as the devil is always at one's
elbow, told me fifty lies about his credentials from
Versailles, and his interest at Saint Germains,
promised me a captain's commission at Paris, and
I have been ass enough to put my thumb under his
belt. I daresay, by this time, he has told a dozen
pretty stories of me to the government. And this
is what I have got by wine, women, and dice, cocks,
dogs, and horses."

" Yes, Bucklaw," said the Master, " you have in-
deed nourished in your bosom the snakes that are
now stinging you."

" That's home as well as true, Master," replied his
companion ; " but, by your leave, you have nursed in
your bosom one great goodly snake that has swal-
lowed all the rest, and is as sure to devour you as
my half dozen are to make a meal on all that's left-

96 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

of Bucklaw, which is but what lies between bonnet
and boot-heel."

" I must not," answered the Master of Eavens-
wood, " challenge the freedom of speech in which I
have set example. What, to speak without a meta-
phor, do you call this monstrous passion, which you
charge me with fostering ? "

" Eevenge, my good sir, revenge ; which, if it be
as gentleman-like a sin as wine and wassail, with
their ct cceteras, is equally unchristian, and not so
bloodless. It is better breaking a park-pale to watch
a doe or damsel, than to shoot an old man."

" I deny the purpose," said the Master of Eavens-
wood. " On my soul, I had no such intention ; I
meant but to confront the oppressor ere I left my
native land, and upbraid him with his tyranny and
its consequences. I would have stated my wrongs
so that they would have shaken his soul within
him."

" Yes," answered Bucklaw, " and he would have
collared you, and cried help, and then you would
have shaken the soul out of him, I suppose. Your
very look and manner would have frightened the
old man to death "

" Consider the provocation," answered Eavens-
wood — " consider the ruin and death procured and
caused by his hard-hearted cruelty — an ancient
house destroyed, an affectionate father murdered !
Why, in our old Scottish days, he that sat quiet
under such wrongs, would have been held neither
fit to back a friend nor face a foe."

" Well, Master, I am glad to see that the devil
deals as cunningly with other folk as he deals with
me ; for whenever I am about to commit any folly,
he persuades me it is the most necessary, gallant,

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 97

gentlemanlike thing on earth, and I am up to sad-
dlegirths in the bog before I see that the ground is
soft. And you, Master, might have turned out a

murd a homicide, just out of pure respect for

your father's memory,"

" There is more sense in your language, Bucklaw,"
replied the Master, " than might have been expected
from your conduct. It is too true, our vices steal
upon us in forms outwardly as fair as those of the
demons whom the superstitious represent as intrigu-
ing with the human race, and are not discovered in
their native hideousness until we have clasped them
in our arms."

" But we may throw them from us, though," said
Bucklaw, "and that is what I shall think of doing
one of these days, — that is, when old Lady Girning-
ton dies."

" Did you ever hear the expression of the English
divine ? " said Ravenswood — " ' Hell is paved with
good intentions ' — as much as to say, they are more
often formed than executed."

" Well," replied Bucklaw, " but I will begin this
blessed night, and have determined not to drink
above one quart of wine, unless your claret be of
extraordinary quality."

" You will find little to tempt you at Wolf's Crag,"
said the Master. " I know not that I can promise
you more than the shelter of my roof ; all, and more
than all, our stock of wine and provisions was ex-
hausted at the late occasion."

" Long may it be ere provision is needed for the
like purpose," answered Bucklaw ; " but you should
not drink up the last flask at a dirge ; there is ill
luck in that."

" There is ill luck, I think, in whatever belongs to
7

98 TALES OF MY LANDLORD

me," said Eavenswood. " But yonder is Wolfs Crag,
and whatever it still contains is at your service."

The roar of the sea had long announced their
approach to the cliffs, on the summit of which, like
the nest of some sea-eagle, the founder of the fort-
alice had perched his eyry. The pale moon, which
had hitherto been contending with flitting clouds,
now shone out, and gave them a view of the solitary
and naked tower, situated on a projecting cliff that
beetled on the German Ocean. On three sides the
rock was precipitous ; on the fourth, which was that
towards the land, it had been originally fenced by
an artificial ditch and drawbridge, but the latter was
broken down and ruinous, and the former had been
in part filled up, so as to allow passage for a horse-
man into the narrow court-yard, encircled on two
sides with low offices and stables, partly ruinous,
and closed on the landward front by a low em-
battled wall, while the remaining side of the quad-
rangle was occupied by the tower itself, which, tall
and narrow, and built of a greyish stone, stood glim-
mering in the moonlight, like the sheeted spectre
of some huge giant. A wilder, or more disconsolate
dwelling, it was perhaps difficult to conceive. The
sombrous and heavy sound of the billows, succes-
sively dashing against the rocky beach at a pro-
found distance beneath, was to the ear what the
landscape was to the eye — a symbol of unvaried and
monotonous melancholy, not unmingled with horror.

Although the night was not far advanced, there
was no sign of living inhabitant about the forlorn
abode, excepting that one, and only one, of the
narrow and stanchelled windows which appeared
at irregular heights and distances in the walls of
the building, showed a small glimmer of light.

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 99

" There," said Raveiiswood, " sits the only male
domestic that remains to the house of Ravenswood ;
and it is well that he does remain there, since other-
wise, we had little hope to find either light or fire.
But follow me cautiously ; the road is narrow, and
admits only one horse in front."

In effect, the path led along a kind of isthmus,
at the peninsular extremity of which the tower was
situated, with that exclusive attention to strength
and security, in preference to every circumstance
of convenience, which dictated to the Scottish
barons the choice of their situations, as well as
their style of building.

By adopting the cautious mode of approach re-
commended by the proprietor of this wild hold,
they entered the court-yard in safety. But it was
long ere the efforts of Ravenswood, though loudly
exerted by knocking at the low-browed entrance,
and repeated shouts to Caleb to open the gate and
admit them, received any answer.

" The old man must be departed," he began to
say, " or fallen into some fit ; for the noise I have
made would have waked the seven sleepers."

At length a timid and hesitating voice replied, —
" Master — Master of Ravenswood, is it you ? "

" Yes, it is I, Caleb ; open the door quickly."

" But is it you in very blood and body ? For I
would sooner face fifty deevils as my master's
ghaist, or even his wraith, — wherefore, aroint ye,
if ye were ten times my master, unless ye come in
bodily shape, lith and limb."

" It is I, you old fool," answered Ravenswood,
"in bodily shape, and alive, save that I am half
dead with cold."

The light at the upper window disappeared, and

100 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

glancing from loop-hole to loop-hole in slow suc-
cession, gave intimation that the bearer was in the
act of descending, with great deliberation, a wind-
ing staircase occupying one of the turrets which
graced the angles of the old tower. The tardiness
of his descent extracted some exclamations of im-
patience from Eavenswood, and several oaths from
his less patient and more mercurial companion.
Caleb again paused ere he unbolted the door, and
once more asked, if they were men of mould that
demanded entrance at this time of night ?

"Were I near you, you old fool," said Bucklaw,
" I would give you sufficient proofs of my bodily
condition."

" Open the gate, Caleb," said his master, in a
more soothing tone, partly from his regard to the
ancient and faithful seneschal, partly perhaps be-
cause he thought that angry words would be thrown
away, so long as Caleb had a stout iron-clenched
oaken door betwixt his person and the speakers.

At length Caleb, with a trembling hand, undid
the bars, opened the heavy door, and stood before
them, exhibiting his thin grey hairs, bald forehead,
and sharp high features, illuminated by a quivering
lamp which he held in one hand, while he shaded
and protected its ilame with the other. The timo-
rous courteous glance which he threw around him —
the effect of the partial light upon his white hair and
illumined features, might have made a good paint-
ing; but our travellers were too impatient for
security against the rising storm, to permit them
to indulge themselves in studying the picturesque.
" Is it you, my dear master ? is it you yourself,
indeed ? " exclaimed the old domestic. " I am wae
ye suld hae stude waiting at your ain gate ; but

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. loi

wha wad hae thought o' seeing ye sae sune, and a
strange gentleman with a — (Here he exclaimed
apart, as it were, and to some inmate of the tower,
in a voice not meant to be heard by those in the
court) — Mysie — Mysie, woman ! stir for dear life,
and get the fire mended ; take the auld three-
legged stool, or ony thing that's readiest that will
make a lowe. — I doubt we are but puirly provided,
no expecting ye this some months, when doubtless
ye wad hae been received conform till your rank,
as gude right is ; but natheless "

" Natheless, Caleb," said the Master, " we must
have our horses put up, and ourselves too, the best
way we can. I hope you are not sorry to see me
sooner than you expected ? "

" Sorry, my lord ! — I am sure ye sail aye be my
lord wi' honest folk, as your noble ancestors hae
been these three hundred years, and never asked
a whig's leave. Sorry to see the Lord of Eavens-
wood at ane o' his ain castles ! — (Then again apart
to his unseen associate behind the screen) — Mysie,
kill the brood-hen without thinking twice on it ;
let them care that come ahint. — No to say it's our
best dwelling," he added, turning to Bucklaw ;
" but just a strength for the Lord of Ravenswood
to flee until, — that is, no to flee, but to retreat
until in troublous times, like the present, when it
was ill convenient for him to live farther in the
country in ony of his better and mair principal
manors ; but, for its antiquity, maist folk think
that the outside of Wolf's Crag is worthy of a large
perusal."

"And you are determined we shall have time
to make it," said Ravenswood, somewliat amused
with the shifts the old man used to detain them

102 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

without doors, until his confederate Mysie had
made her preparations within.

" 0, never mind the outside of the house, my
good friend," said Bucklaw ; " let's see the inside,
and let our horses see the stable, that's all."

" 0 yes, sir — ay, sir, — unquestionably, sir — my
lord and ony of his honourable companions "

" But our horses, my old friend — our horses ;
they will be dead-foundered by standing here in
the cold after riding hard, and mine is too good to
be spoiled ; therefore, once more, our horses," ex-
claimed Bucklaw.

" True — ay — your horses — yes — I will call
the grooms ; " and sturdily did Caleb roar till the
old tower rang again, — " John — William — Saun-
ders ! — The lads are gane out, or sleeping," he
observed, after pausing for an answer, which he
knew that he had no human chance of receiving.
"A' gaes wrang when the Master's out by ; but I'll
take care o' your cattle mysell."

" I think you had better," said Eavenswood,
" otherwise I see little chance of their being
attended to at all."

"Whisht, my lord, — whisht, for God's sake,"
said Caleb, in an imploring tone, and apart to his
master ; " if ye dinna regard your ain credit, think
on mine ; we'll hae hard eneugh wark to mak a
decent night o't, wi' a' the lees I can tell."

"Well, well, never mind," said his master; "go
to the stable. There is hay and corn, I trust ? "

" Ou ay, plenty of hay and corn ; " this was
uttered boldly and aloud, and, in a lower tone,
" there was some half fous o' aits, and some t?Ats o'
meadow-hay, left after the burial."

" Very well," said Eavenswood, taking the lamp

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 103

from his domestic's unwilling hand, " I will show
the stranger up stairs myself."

" I canna think 0' that, my lord ; — if ye wad but
have five minutes, or ten minutes, or, at maist, a
quarter of an hour's patience, and look at the fine
moonlight prospect of the Bass and North-Berwick
Law till I sort the horses, I would marshal ye up,
as reason is ye suld be marshalled, your lordship
and your honourable visitor. And I hae lockit up
the siller candlesticks, and the lamp is not fit "

" It will do very well in the meantime," said
Eavenswood, " and you will have no difficulty for
want of light in the stable, for, if I recollect, half
the roof is off."

" Yery true, my lord," replied the trusty adhe-
rent, and with ready wit instantly added, " and the
lazy sclater loons have never come to put it on a'
this while, your lordship."

" If I were disposed to jest at the calamities of
my house," said Eavenswood, as he led the way
up stairs, " poor old Caleb would furnish me with
ample means. His passion consists in representing
things about our miserable menage, not as they are,
but as, in his opinion, they ought to be ; and, to
say the truth, I have been often diverted with the
poor wretch's expedients to supply what he thought
was essential for the credit of the family, and his
still more generous apologies for the want of those
articles for which his ingenuity could discover no
substitute. But though the tower is none of the
largest, I shall have some trouble without him to
find the apartment in which there is a fire."

As he spoke thus, he opened the door of the
hall. " Here, at least," he said, " there is neither
hearth nor harbour."

104 TALES OF MY LA^'DLORD.

It was indeed a scene of desolation. A large
vaulted room, the beams of which, combined like
those of Westminster-Hall, were rudely carved at
the extremities, remained nearly in the situation in
which it had been left after the entertainment
at Allan Lord Eavenswood's funeral. Overturned
pitchers, and black jacks, and pewter stoups, and
flagons, still cumbered the large oaken table ; glasses,
those more perishable implements of conviviality,
many of which had been voluntarily sacrificed by
the guests in their enthusiastic pledges to favourite
toasts, strewed the stone floor with their fragments.
As for the articles of plate, lent for the purpose by
friends and kinsfolk, those had been carefully with-
drawn so soon as the ostentatious display of festi-
vity, equally unnecessary and strangely timed, had
been made and ended. Nothing, in short, remained
that indicated wealth ; all the signs were those
of recent wastefulness, and present desolation. The
black cloth hangings, which, on the late mournful
occasion, replaced the tattered moth-eaten tapes-
tries, had been partly pulled down, and, dangling
from the wall in irregular festoons, disclosed the
rough stone-work of the building, unsmoothed
either by plaster or the chisel. The seats thrown
down, or left in disorder, intimated the careless
confusion which had concluded the mournful revel.
"This room," said Eavenswood, holding up the
lamp — " this room, Mr. Hayston, was riotous when
it should have been sad ; it is a just retribution
that it should now be sad when it ought to be
cheerful."

They left this disconsolate apartment, and went
up stairs, where, after opening one or two doors in
vain, Eavenswood led the way into a little matted

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 105

anteroom, in which, to their great joy, they found
a tolerably good fire, which Mysie, by some such
expedient as Caleb had suggested, had supplied
with a reasonable quantity of fuel. Glad at the
heart to see more of comfort than the castle had
yet seemed to offer, Bucklaw rubbed his hands
heartily over the fire, and now listened with more
complacency to the apologies which the Master of
Eavenswood offered. " Comfort," he said, " I can-
not provide for you, for I have it not for myself ;
it is loDg since these walls have known it, if, in-
deed, they were ever acquainted with it. Shelter
and safety, I think, I can promise you."

" Excellent matters, Master," replied Bucklaw,
" and, with a mouthful of food and wine, positively
all I can require to-night."

" I fear," said the Master, " your supper will be
a poor one ; I hear the matter in discussion betwixt
Caleb and Mysie. Poor Balderstone is something
deaf, amongst his other accomplishments, so that
much of what he means should be spoken aside is
overheard by the whole audience, and especially by
those from whom he is most anxious to conceal his
private manoeuvres — Hark ! "

They listened, and heard the old domestic's voice
in conversation with Mysie to the following effect.
" Just mak the best o't, mak the best o't, woman ;
it's easy to put a fair face on ony thing."

" But the auld brood-hen ? — she'll be as teugh
as bow-strings and bend-leather ! "

" Say ye made a mistake — say ye made a mis-
take, Mysie," replied the faithful seneschal, in a
soothing and undertoned voice ; " tak it a' on your-
sell ; never let the credit 0' the house suffer."

" But the brood-hen," remonstrated Mysie, —

io6 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

" ou, she's sitting some gate aneath the dais in cha
hall, and I am feared to gae in in the dark for the
bogle ; and if I didna see the bogle, I could as ill
see the hen, for it's pit-mirk, and there's no another
light in the house, save that very blessed lamp
whilk the Master has in his ain hand. And if I
had the hen, she's to pu', and to draw, and to dress ;
how can I do that, and them sitting by the only fire
we have ? "

" Weel, weel, Mysie," said the butler, " bide ye
there a wee, and I'll try to get the lamp wiled away
frae them."

Accordingly, Caleb Balderstone entered the apart-
ment, little aware that so much of his by-play had
been audible there. "Well, Caleb, my old friend,
is there any chance of supper ? " said the Master of
Eavenswood.

" Chance of supper, your lordship ? " said Caleb,
with an emphasis of strong ccorn at the implied
doubt, — "How should there be ony question of
that, and us in your lordship's house ? — Chance of
supper, indeed ! — But ye'll no be for butcher-meat ?
There's walth o' fat poultry, ready either for spit or
brander — The fat capon, Mysie ! " he added, calling
out as boldly as if such a thing had been in existence.

" Quite unnecessary," said Bucklaw, who deemed
himself bound in courtesy to relieve some part
of the anxious butler s perplexity, " if you have any
thing cold, or a morsel of bread."

" The best of bannocks ! " exclaimed Caleb, much
relieved ; " and, for cauld meat, a' that we hae is
cauld eneugh, — howbeit maist of the cauld meat
and pastry was gien to the poor folk after the
ceremony of interment, as gude reason was ;
nevertheless "

THE BRIDE OF I-AMMERMOOR. 107

" Come, Caleb," said the Master of Eaveiiswood,
"I must cut this matter short. This is the young
laird of Bucklaw ; he is uuder hiding, and there-
fore, you know " —

" He'll be nae nicer than your lordship's honour,
I'se warrant," answered Caleb, cheerfully, with a
nod of intellige;ice ; " I am sorry that the gentle-
man is under distress, but I am blithe that he
canna say muckle agane our house-keeping, for I
believe his ain pinches may match ours ; — no that
we are pinched, thank God," he added, retracting
the admission which he had made in his first burst
of joy, " but nae doubt we are waar aff than we
hae been, or suld be. And for eating, — what sig-
nifies telling a lee ? there's just the hinder end of
the mutton-ham that has been but three times on
the table, and the nearer the bane the sweeter, as
your honours weel ken ; and — there's the heel of
the ewe-milk kebbuck, wi' a bit of nice butter, and
— and — that's a' that's to trust to." And with
great alacrity he produced his slender stock of pro-
visions, and placed them with much formality upon
a small round table betwixt the two gentlemen, who
were not deterred either by the homely quality or
limited quantity of the repast from doing it full
justice. Caleb in the meanwhile waited on them
with grave officiousness, as if anxious to make up,
by his own respectful assiduity, for the want of all
other attendance.

But alas ! how little on such occasions can form,
however anxiously and scrupulously observed, sup-
ply the lack of substantial fare ! Bucklaw, who had
eagerly eaten a considerable portion of the thrice -
sacked mutton-ham, now began to demand ale.

" I wadna just presume to recommend our ale."

io8 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

said Caleb ; " the maut was ill made, and there was
awfu' thunner last week ; but siccan water as the
Tower well has ye'U seldom see, Bucklaw, and that
I'se engage for."

" But if your ale is bad, you can let us have some
wine," said Bucklaw, making a grimace at the men-
tion of the pure element which Caleb so earnestly
recommended.

" "VVine ? " answered Caleb, undauntedly, " eneugh
of wine ; it was but twa days syne — wae's me for
the cause — there was as much wine drunk in this
house as would have floated a pinnace. There never
was lack of wine at Wolf's Crag."

" Do fetch us some then," said his master, " in-
stead of talking about it." And Caleb boldly
departed.

Every expended butt in the old cellar did he set
a-tilt, and shake with the desperate expectation of
collecting enough of the grounds of claret to fill the
large pewter measure which he carried in his hand.
Alas! each had been too devoutly drained; and,
with all the squeezing and manoeuvring which his
craft as a butler suggested, he could only collect
about half a quart that seemed presentable. Still,
however, Caleb was too good a general to renounce
the field without a stratagem to cover his retreat.
He undauntedly threw down an empty flagon, as
if he had stumbled at the entrance of the apart-
ment ; called upon Mysie to wipe up the wine that
had never been spilt, and placing the other vessel
on the table, hoped there was still enough left for
their honours. There was indeed ; for even Buck-
law, a sworn friend to the grape, found no encour-
agement to renew his first attack upon the vintage
of Wolf's Crag, but contented himself, however

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 109

reluctantly, with a draught of fair water. Arrange-
ments were now made for his repose ; and as the
secret chamber was assigned for this purpose, it
furnished Caleb with a first-rate and most plausible
apology for all deficiencies of furniture, bedding, &c.
"For wha," said he, "would have thought of the
secret chaumer being needed ? it has not been used
since the time of the Gowrie Conspiracy, and I
durst never let a woman ken of the entrance to it.
or your honour will allow that it wad not hae been
a secret chaumer lang."

CHAPTEE YTII.

The hearth in hall was black anil dead.

Xo lioard was dight in bower within,

Xor merry bowl nor welcome be<l ;

" Here 's sorry cheer," quoth the Heir of Linne.

Old Ballad.

The feelings of the prodigal Heir of Liiuie, as ex-
pressed iu that excellent old song, when, after
dissipating his whole fortune, he found himself the
deserted inhabitant of "the lonely lodge," might
perhaps have some resemblance to those of the
Master of Ravenswood in his deserted mansion of
Wolf's Crag. The Master, however, had this ad-
vantage over the spendthrift in the legend, that if
he was in similar distress, he could not impute it
to his own imprudence. His misery had been be-
queathed to him by his father, and, joined to his
high blood, and to a title which the courteous might
give, or the churlish withhold, at their pleasure, it
was the whole inheritance he had derived from his
ancestry.

Perhaps this melancholy, yet consolatory reflec-
tion, crossed the mind of the unfortunate young
nobleman with a breathing of comfort. Favourable
to calm reflection, as well as to the Muses, the
morning, while it dispelled the shades of night, had
a composing and sedative effect upon the stormy
passions by which the Master of Ravenswood had
been agitated on the preceding day. He now felt
himself able to analvse the different feeliuss bv

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. iii

which he was agitated, and much resolved to com-
bat and to subdue them. The morning, which had
arisen calm and bright, gave a pleasant effect even
to the waste moorland view which was seen from
the castle on looking to the landward ; and the glo-
rious ocean, crisped with a thousand rippling waves
of silver, extended on the other side, in awful yet
complacent majesty, to the verge of the horizon.
With such scenes of calm sublimity the human
heart sympathizes even in its most disturbed moods,
and deeds of honour and virtue are inspired by
their majestic influence.

To seek out Bucklaw in the retreat which he had
afforded him was the first occupation of the Master,
after he had performed, with a scrutiny unusually
severe, the important task of self-examination.
" How now, Bucklaw ? " was his morning's salu-
tation — " how like you the couch in which the
exiled Earl of Angus once slept in security, when
he was pursued by the full energy of a king's
resentment ? "

" Umph ! " returned the sleeper awakened ; " I
have little to complain of where so great a man was
quartered before me, only the mattress was of the
hardest, the vault somewhat damp, the rats rather
more mutinous than I would have expected from
the state of Caleb's larder ; and if there had been
shutters to that grated window, or a curtain to the
bed, I should think it, upon the whole, an improve-
ment in your accommodations."

" It is, to be sure, forlorn enough," said the
Master, looking around the small vault ; " but if
you will rise and leave it, Caleb will endeavour to
find you a better breakfast than your supper of
last night."

112 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

"Pray, let it be no better," said Bucklaw, get-
ting up, and endeavouring to dress himself as well
as the obscurity of the place would permit — " let
it, I say, be no better, if you mean me to persevere
in my proposed reformation. The very recollection
of Caleb's beverage has done more to suppress my
longing to open the day with a morning-draught
than twenty sermons would have done. And you.
Master, have you been able to give battle valiantly
to your bosom-snake ? You see I am in the way
of smothering my vipers one by one."

" I have commenced the battle, at least, Bucklaw
and I have had a fair vision of an angel who
descended to my assistance," replied the Master.

" Woe's me ! " said his guest, " no vision can I
expect, unless my aunt, Lady Girnington, should
betake herself to the tomb ; and then it would be
the substance of her heritage rather than the appear-
ance of her phantom that I should consider as the
support of my good resolutions. — But this same
breakfast. Master, — does the deer that is to make
the pasty run yet on foot, as the ballad has it ?"

" I will enquire into that matter," said his enter-
tainer; and, leaving the apartment, he went in
search of Caleb, whom, after some difficulty, he
found in an obscure sort of dungeon, which had
been in former times the buttery of the castle.
Here the old man was employed busily in the doubt-
ful task of burnishing a pewter flagon until it should
take the hue and semblance of silver-plate. " I
think it may do — I think it might pass, if they
winna bring it ower muckle in the light o' the win-
dow ! " were the ejaculations which he muttered
from time to time, as if to encourage himself in his
undertaking, when he was interrupted by the voice

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 113

of his master. " Take this," said the Master of
Eavenswood, " and get what is necessary for the
family." And with these words he gave to the old
butler the purse which had on the preceding even-
ing so narrowly escaped the fangs of Craigengelt.
The old man shook his silvery and thin locks, and
looked with an expression of the most heartfelt
anguish at his master as he weighed in his hand the
slender treasure, and said in a sorrowful voice,
" And is this a' that's left ? "

"All that is left at present," said the Master,
affecting more cheerfulness than perhaps he really
felt, " is just the green purse and the wee pickle
gowd, as the old song says ; but we shall do better
one day, Caleb."

" Before that day comes," said Caleb, " I doubt
there will be an end of an auld sang, and an auld
servins-man to boot. But it disna become me to
speak that gate to your honour, and you looking sae
pale. Tak back the purse, and keep it to be making
a show before company ; for if your honour would just
tak a bidding, and be whiles taking it out afore folk
and putting it up again, there's naebody would re-
fuse us trust, for a' that's come and gane yet."

"But, Caleb," said the Master, "I still intend
to leave this country very soon, and desire to do so
with the reputation of an honest man, leaving no
debt behind me, at least of my own contracting."

" And gude right ye suld gang away as a true
man, and so ye shall ; for auld Caleb can tak the
wyte of whatever is taen on for the house, and
then it will be a' just ae man's burden ; and I will
live just as weel in the tolbooth as out of it, and
the credit of the family will be a' safe and sound."

The Master endeavoured, in vain, to make Caleb
8

114 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

comprehend, that the butler's incurring the respon-
sibility of debts in his own person, would rather
add to than remove the objections which he had to
their being contracted. He spoke to a premier, too
busy in devising ways and means to puzzle himself
with refuting the arguments offered against their
justice or expediency.

" There's Eppie Sma'trash will trust us for ale,"
said Caleb to himself ; " she has lived a' her life
under the family — and maybe wi' a soup brandy —
I canna say for wine — she is but a lone woman, and
gets her claret by a runlet at a time — but I'll work
a wee drap out o' her by fair means or foul. For
doos, there's the doocot — there will be poultry
amang the tenants, though Luckie Chirnside says
she has paid the kain twice ower. AVe'll mak shift,
an it like your honour — we'll mak shift — keep your
heart abune, for the house sail baud its credit as
lang as auld Caleb is to the fore."

The entertainment which the old man's exertions
of various kinds enabled him to present to the young
gentlemen for three or four days, was certainly of
no splendid description, but it may readily be be-
lieved it was set before no critical guests ; and even
the distresses, excuses, evasions, and shifts, of Caleb,
afforded amusement to the young men, and added
a sort of interest to the scrambling and irregular
style of their table. They had indeed occasion to
seize on every circumstance that might serve to
diversify or enliven time, which otherwise passed
away so heavily.

Bucklaw, shut out from his usual field-sports and
joyous carouses by the necessity of remaining con-
cealed within the walls of the castle, became a joy-
less and uninteresting companion. "When the Mas-

THE BRIDE 0¥ LAMMERMOOK. u^

ter of Ravenswood would no longer fence or play at
shovel-board — when he himself had polished to the
extremity the coat of his palfrey with brush, curry-
comb, and hair-cloth — when he had seen him eat
his provender, and gently lie down in his stall, he
could hardly help envying the animal's apparent
acquiescence in a life so monotonous. " The stupid
brute," he said, " thinks neither of the race-ground
or the hunting-field, or his green paddock at Buck-
law, but enjoys himself as comfortably when hal-
tered to the rack in this ruinous vault, as if he had
been foaled in it; and I, who have the freedom of a
prisoner at large, to range through the dungeons of
this wretched old tower, can hardly, betwixt whis-
tling and sleeping, contrive to pass away the hour
till dinner-time."

And with this disconsolate reflection, he wended
his way to the bartizan or battlements of the tower,
to watch what objects might appear on the distant
moor, or to pelt, with pebbles and pieces of lime,
the sea-mews and cormorants which established
themselves incautiously within the reach of an idle
young man.

Ravenswood, with a mind incalculably deeper and
more powerful than that of his companion, had his
own anxious subjects of reflection, which wrought
for him the same unhappiness that sheer ennui and
want of occupation inflicted on his companion. The
first sight of Lucy Ashton had been less impressive
than her image proved to be upon reflection. As
the depth and violence of that revengeful passion,
by which he had been actuated in seeking an inter-
view with the father, began to abate by degrees, he
looked back on his conduct towards the daughter as
harsh and unworthv towards a female of rank and

ii6 TALES or MY LANDLORD.

beauty. Her looks of grateful acknowledgment, her
words of affectionate courtesy, had been repelled
with something which approached to disdain ; and
if the Master of Eavenswood had sustained wrongs
at the hand of Sir William Ashton, his conscience
told him they had been unhandsomely resented
towards his daughter. When his thoughts took
this turn of self-reproach, the recollection of Lucy
Ashton's beautiful features, rendered yet more inter-
esting by the circumstances in which their meeting
had taken place, made an impression upon his mind
at once soothing and painful. The sweetness of her
voice, the delicacy of her expressions, the vivid glow
of her filial affection, embittered his regret at having
repulsed her gratitude with rudeness, while, at the
same time, they placed before his imagination a
picture of the most seducing sweetness.

Even young Eavenswood's strength of moral feel-
ing and rectitude of purpose at once increased the
danger of cherishing these recollections, and the
propensity to entertain them. Firmly resolved as
he was to subdue, if possible, the predominating
vice in his character, he admitted with willingness
— nay, he summoned up in his imagination, the
ideas by which it could be most powerfully counter-
acted ; and, while he did so, a sense of his own harsh
conduct towards the daughter of his enemy naturally
induced him, as if by way of recompense, to invest
her with more of grace and beauty than perhaps she
could actually claim.

Had any one at this period told the Master of
Eavenswood that he had so lately vowed vengeance
against the whole lineage of him whom he considered,
not unjustly, as author of his father's rain and death,
he might at first have repelled the charge as a foul

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOIL 117

calumny; yet, upon serious self-examination, he
would have been compelled to admit, that it had,
at one period, some foundation in truth, though, ac-
cording to the present tone of his sentiments, it was
difficult to believe that this had really been the case.

There already existed in his bosom two contra-
dictory passions, — a desire to revenge the death of
his father, strangely qualified by admiration of his
enemy's daughter. Against the former feeling he
had struggled, until it seemed to him upon the
wane ; against the latter he used no means of resist-
ance, for he did not suspect its existence. That
this was actually the case, was chiefly evinced by
his resuming his resolution to leave Scotland. Yet,
though such was his purpose, he remained day after
day at Wolf's Crag, without taking measures for car-
rying it into execution. It is true, that he had writ-
ten to one or two kinsmen, who resided in a distant
quarter of Scotland, and particularly to the Marquis

of A , intimating his purpose ; and when pressed

upon the subject by Bucklaw, he was wont to allege
the necessity of waiting for their reply, especially that
of the Marquis, before taking so decisive a measure.

The Marquis was rich and powerful ; and although
he was suspected to entertain sentiments unfavour-
able to the government established at the Eevolu-
tion, he had nevertheless addi'ess enough to head a
party in the Scottish Privy Council, connected with
the high church faction in England, and powerful
enough to menace those to whom the Lord Keeper
adhered, with a probable subversion of their power.
The consulting with a personage of such importance
was a plausible excuse, which Eavenswood used to
Bucklaw, and probably to himself, for continuing
his residence at Wolf's Crag ; and it was rendered

ii8 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

yet more so by a general report which began to be
current, of a probable change of ministers and meas-
ures in the Scottish administration. These rumours,
strongly asserted by some, and as resolutely denied
by others, as their wishes or interest dictated, found
their way even to the ruinous Tower of Wolf's Crag,
chiefly through the medium of Caleb the butler, who,
among his other excellences, was an ardent politician,
and seldom made an excursion from the old for-
tress in the neighbouiing village of AVolf's-hope,
without bringing back what tidings were current
in the vicinity.

But if Bucklaw could not offer any satisfactory
objections to the delay of the Master in leaving
Scotland, he did not the less suffer with impatience
the state of inaction to which it confined him ; and
it was only the ascendency, which his new com-
panion had acquired over him, that induced him to
submit to a course of life so alien to his habits and
inclinations.

" You were wont to be thought a stirring active
young fellow. Master," was his frequent remon-
strance ; " 3^et here you seem determined to live
on and on like a rat in a hole, with this trifling dif-
ference, that the wiser vermin chooses a hermitage
where he can find food at least ; but as for us, Ca-
leb's excuses become longer as his diet turns more
spare, and I fear we shall realize the stories they
tell of the sloth, — we have almost eat up the last
green leaf on the plant, and have nothing left for
it but to drop from the tree and break our necks."

"Do not fear it," said Ravenswood ; "there is
a fate watches for us, and we too have a stake in
the revolution that is now impending, and which
already has alarmed many a bosom."

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 119

" What fate — what revolution ? " enquired his
companion. " We have had one revolution too
much already, I think."

Eavenswood interrupted him by putting into his
hands a letter.

" 0," answered Bucklaw, " ray dream's out — I
thought I heard Caleb this morning pressing some
unfortunate fellow to a drink of cold water, and
assuring him it was better for his stomach in the
morning than ale or brandy."

" It was my Lord of A 's courier," said Ea-
venswood, " who was doomed to experience his
ostentatious hospitality, which I believe ended in
sour beer and herrings — Eead, and you will see the
news he has brought us."

" I will as fast as I can," said Bucklaw ; " but I
am no great clerk, nor does his lordship seem to be
the first of scribes."

The reader will peruse, in a few seconds, by the
aid of our -friend Ballantyne's types, what took
Bucklaw a good half hour in perusal, though as-
sisted by the Master of Eavenswood. The tenor
was as follows : —

" Hight Honourable our Coicsin, — Our hearty
commendations premised, these come to assure you of
the interest which we take in your welfare, and in your
purposes towards its augmentation. If we have been
less active in showing forth our effective good-will
towards you than, as a loving kinsman and blood-
relative, we would willingly have desired, we request
that you will impute it to lack of opportunity to show
our good-liking, not to any coldness of our will. Touch-
ing your resolution to travel in foreign parts, as at this
time we hold the same little advisable, in respect that
your ill-willers may, according to the custom of such

120 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

persons, impute motives for your journey, whereof,
although we know and believe you to be as clear as
ourselves, yet natheless their words may find credence
in places where the belief iu them may much prejudice
you, and which we should see with more unwillingness
and displeasure than with means of remedy.

''Having thus, as becometh our kindred, given you
our poor mind on the subject of your journeying forth
of Scotland, we would willingly add reasons of weight,
which might materially advantage you and your father's
house, thereby to determine you to abide at Wolf's
Crag, until this harvest season shall be passed over.
But what sayeth the proverb, verbum sapienti, —
a word is more to him that hath wisdom than a sermon
to a fool. And albeit we have written this poor scroll
with our own hand, and are well assured of the
fidelity of our messenger, as him that is many ways
bounden to us, yet so it is that sliddery ways crave
wary walking, and that we may not peril upon paper
matters which we would gladly impart to you by
word of mouth. Wherefore, it was our purpose to have
prayed you heartily to come to this our barren Highland
country to kill a stag, and to treat of the matters which
we are now more painfully inditing to you anent. But
commodity does not serve at present for such our meet-
ing, which, therefore, shall be deferred intil sic time
as we may in all mirth rehearse those things whereof
we now keep silence. Meantime, we pray you to think
that we are, and will still be, your good kinsman and
well-wisher, waiting but for times of whilk we do, as it
were, entertain a twilight prospect, and appear and hope
to be also your effectual well-doer. And in which hope
we heartily write ourself,

*' Right Honourable,

" Your loving cousin,

«' A

*' Given from our poor
house of B , &c."

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. t2i

Superscribed — " For the right honourable and our
honoured kinsman, the Master of Eaveuswood —
These, with haste, haste, post haste — ride and run
until these be delivered."

" What think you of this epistle, Bucklaw ? " said
the Master, when his companion had hammered out
all the sense, and almost all the words of which it
consisted.

" Truly, that the Marquis's meaning is as great
a riddle as his manuscript. He is really in much
need of Wit's Interpreter, or the Complete Letter-
Writer, and were I you, I would send him a copy
by the bearer. He writes you very kindly to
remain wasting your time and your money in this
vile, stupid, oppressed country, without so much as
offering you the countenance and shelter of his
house. In my opinion, he has some scheme in view
in which he supposes you can be useful, and he
wishes to keep you at hand, to make use of you
when it ripens, reserving the power of turning you
adrift, should his plot fail in the concoction."

" His plot ? — then you suppose it is a treasonable
business," answered Ravenswood.

" What else can it be ? " replied Bucklaw ; " the
Marquis has been long suspected to have an eye to
Saint Germains."

" He should not engage me rashly in such an
adventure," said Eavenswood ; " when I recollect
the times of the first and second Charles, and of
the last James, truly I see little reason, that, as a
man or a patriot, I should draw my sword for their
descendants."

" Humph ! " replied Bucklaw ; " so you have set
yourself down to mourn over the crop-eared dogs,
whom honest Claver'se treated as they deserved ? "

122 TALES OF MY LANDLOKD.

" They first gave the dogs an ill name, and then
hanged them," replied Eavenswood. " I hope to
see the day when justice shall be open to Whig
and Tory, and when these nick-names shall only
be used among coftee-house politicians, as slut and
jade are among apple-women, as cant terms of idle
spite and rancour."

" That will not be in our days, Master — the iron
has entered too deeply into our sides and our
souls."

" It will be, however, one day," replied the Mas-
ter; "men will not always start at these nick-
names as at a trumpet-sound. As social life is
better protected, its comforts will become too dear
to be hazarded without some better reason than
speculative politics."

"It is fine talking," answered Bucklaw; "but
my heart is with the old song, —

To see good corn upon the rigs,

And a gallows built to hang the "^higs,

And the right restored -where the right should be,

O, that is the thing that would wanton me."

"You may sing as loudly as you will, cantabit
vacuus," — answered the Master ; " but I believe
the Marquis is too wise, at least too wary, to join
you in such a burden. I suspect he alludes to a
revolution in the Scottish Privy Council, rather
than in the British kingdoms."

" 0, confusion to your state-tricks ! " exclaimed
Bucklaw, " your cold calculating manoeu\Tes, which
old gentlemen in wrought nightcaps and furred
gowns execute like so many games at chess, and
displace a treasurer or lord commissioner as they
would take a rook or a pawn. Tennis for my sport,

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 123

and battle for my earnest ! My racket and my
sword for my plaything and bread-winner ! And
you, Master, so deep and considerate as you would
seem, you have that within you makes the blood
boil faster than suits your present humour of
moralizing on political truths. You are one of
those wise men who see everything with great
composure till their blood is up, and then — woe to
any one who should put them in mind of their own
prudential maxims ! "

" Perhaps," said Ravenswood, " you read me
more rightly than I can myself. But to think
justly will certainly go some length in helping me
to act so. But hark ! I hear Caleb tolling the
dinner-bell."

" Which he always does with the more sonorous
grace, in proportion to the meagreness of the cheer
which he has provided," said Bucklaw ; " as if that
infernal clang and jangle, which will one day bring
the belfry down the cliff, could convert a starved
hen into a fat capon, and a blade-bone of mutton
into a haunch of venison."

" I wish we may be so well off as your worst
conjectures surmise, Bucklaw^, from the extreme
solemnity and ceremony with which Caleb seems to
place on the table that solitary covered dish."

" Uncover, Caleb ! uncover, for Heaven's sake ! "
said Bucklaw ; " let us have what you can give us
without preface — Why, it stands well enough,
man," he continued, addressing impatiently the
ancient butler, who, without reply, kept shifting the
dish, until he had at length placed it with mathe-
matical precision in the very midst of the table.

" What have we got here, Caleb ? " enquired the
Master in his turn.

124 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

" Ahem ! sir, ye suld have known before ; but
his honour the Laird of Bucklaw is so impatient,"
answered Caleb, still holding the dish with one
hand, and the cover with the other, with evident
reluctance to disclose the contents.

"But what is it, a God's name — not a pair of
clean spurs, I hope, in the Border fashion of old
times ? "

" Ahem ! ahem ! " reiterated Caleb, " your hon-
our is pleased to be facetious — natheless, I might
presume to say it was a convenient fashion, and
used, as I have heard, in an honourable and thriving
family. But touching your present dinner, I judged
that this being Saint Magdalen's Eve, who was
a worthy queen of Scotland in her day, your hon-
ours might judge it decorous, if not altogether to
fast, yet only to sustain nature with some slight
refection, as ane saulted herring or the like." And,
uncovering the dish, he displayed four of the sav-
oury fishes which he mentioned, adding, in a sub-
dued tone, " that they were no just common her-
ring neither, being every ane melters, and sauted
with uncommon care by the housekeeper (poor
Mysie) for his honour's especial use."

" Out upon all apologies ! " said the Master, " let
us eat the herrings, since there is nothing better to
be had — but I begin to think with you, Bucklaw,
that we are consuming the last green leaf, and that,
in spite of the Marquis's political machinations, we
must positively shift camp for want of forage, with-
out waiting the issue of them."

CHAPTEE IX.

Ay, and when huntsmen wind the merry horn,

And from its covert starts the fearful prey,

Who, warm'd with youth's blood in his swelling veins,

Would, like a lifeless clod, outstretched lie.

Shut out from all the fair creation offers ?

Ethwald, Act I. Scene I.

Light meals procure light slumbers ; and therefore
it is not surprising, that, considering the fare which
Caleb's conscience, or his necessity, assuming, as
will sometimes happen, that disguise, had assigned
to the guests of Wolfs Crag, their slumbers should
have been short.

In the morning Bucklaw rushed into his host's
apartment with a loud halloo, which might have
awaked the dead.

" Up ! up ! in the name of Heaven — the hunters are
out, the only piece of sport I have seen this month -,
and you lie here, Master, on a bed that has little to
recommend it, except that it may be something softer
than the stone floor of your ancestor's vault."

" I wish," said Eavenswood, raising his head peev-
ishly, " you had forborne so early a jest, Mr. Hay-
ston — it is really no pleasure to lose the very short
repose which I had just begun to enjoy, after a night
spent in thoughts upon fortune far harder than my
couch, Bucklaw."

" Pshaw, pshaw ! " replied his guest ; " get up —
get up — the hounds are abroad — I have saddled
the horses myself, for old Caleb was calling for

126 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

grooms and lackeys, and would never have pro-
ceeded without two hours' apology, for the absence
of men that were a hundred miles off. — Get up.
Master — I say the hounds are out — get up, I
say — the hunt is up," A.nd off ran Bucklaw.

" And I say," said the Master, rising slowly,
"that nothing can concern me less. Whose hounds
come so near to us ? "

" The Honourable Lord Bittlebrains'," answered
Caleb, who had followed the impatient Laird of
Bucklaw into his master's bedroom, "and truly I
ken nae title they have to be yowling and howling
within the freedoms and immunities of your lord-
ship's right of free forestry."

" Xor I, Caleb," replied Eavenswood, " excepting
that they have bought both the lands and the right
of forestry, and may think themselves entitled to ex-
ercise the rights they have paid their money for."

" It may be sae, my lord," replied Caleb; "but it's
no gentleman's deed of them to come here and exer-
cise such like right, and your lordship living at your
ain castle of Wolf's Crag. Lord Bittlebrains would
do weel to remember what his folk have been,"

" And we what we now are," said the Master,
with suppressed bitterness of feeling. " But reach
me my cloak, Caleb, and I will indulge Bucklaw
with a sight of this chase. It is selfish to sacrifice
my guest's pleasure to my own."

" Sacrifice ! " echoed Caleb, in a tone which seemed
to imply the total absurdity of his master making the
least concession in deference to any one — " Sacrifice,
indeed ! — but I crave your honour's pardon — and
whilk doublet is it your pleasure to wear ? "

" Any one you will, Caleb — my wardrobe, I
suppose, is not very extensive."

THE BRIDE OF LAMMER^IOOR. 127

" Not extensive ! " echoed his assistant ; " when
there is the grey and silver that your lordship be-
stowed on Hew Hildebrand, your outrider — and
the French velvet that went with my lord your fa-
ther — (be gracious to him !) — my lord your father's
auld wardrobe to the puir friends of the family,
and the drap-de-berry " —

" Which I gave to you, Caleb, and which, I sup-
pose, is the only dress we have any chance to come
at, except that I wore yesterday — pray, hand me
that, and say no more about it."

" If your honour has a fancy," replied Caleb,
" and doubtless it's a sad-coloured suit, and you are
in mourning — nevertheless, I have never tried on
the drap-de-berry — ill wad it become me — and
your honour having no cliange of claiths at this
present — audit's weel brushed, and as there are
leddies down yonder" —

" Ladies ! " said Ravenswood ; " and what ladies,
pray ?

" What do I ken, your lordship ? — looking down
at them from the Warden's Tower, I could but see
them glent by wi' their bridles ringing, and their
feathers fluttering, like the court of Elfland."

" Well, well, Caleb," replied the Master, " help
me on with my cloak, and hand me my sword-belt.
— What clatter is that in the court-yard ? "

" Just Bucklaw bringing out the horses," said
Caleb, after a glance through the window, " as if
there werena men eneugh in the castle, or as if I
couldna serve the turn of ony 0' them that are out
0' the gate."

" Alas .' Caleb, we should want little, if your abil-
ity were equal to your will," replied his master.

" And I hope your lordship disna want that

128 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

muckle," said Caleb ; " for, considering a' things,
I trust we support the credit of the family as weel
as things will permit of, — only Bucklaw is aye sae
frank and sae forward. — And there he has brought
out your lordship's palfrey, without the saddle being
decored wi' the broidered sumpter-cloth ! and I
could have brushed it in a minute."

" It is all very well," said his master, escaping
from him, and descending the narrow and steep
winding staircase, which led to the court-yard.

" It may be a' very weel," said Caleb, somewhat
peevishly ; " but if your lordship wad tarry a bit,
I will tell you what will not be very weel."

" And what is that ? " said Eavenswood, impa-
tiently, but stopping at the same time.

" Why, just that ye suld speer ouy gentleman
hame to dinner ; for I canna mak anitlier fast on a
feast day, as when I cam ower Bucklaw wi' Queen
Margaret — and, to speak truth, if your lordship
wad but please to cast yoursell in the way of dining
wi' Lord Bittlebrains, I'se warrand I wad cast
about brawly for the morn ; or if, stead o' that, ye
wad but dine wi' them at the change-house, ye
might mak your shift for the lawing ; ye might
say ye had forgot your purse — or that the carline
awed ye rent, and that ye wad allow it in the
settlement."

" Or any other lie that came uppermost, I sup-
pose ?" said his master. " Good -by, Caleb ; I com-
mend your care for the honour of the family." And,
throwing himself on his horse, he followed Buck-
law, who, at the manifest risk of his neck, had be-
gun to gallop down the steep path which led from
the Tower, as soon as he saw Ravenswood have his
foot in the stirrup.

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 129

Caleb Balderstone looked anxiously after them,
and shook his thin grey locks — " And I trust they
will come to no evil — but they have reached the
plain, and folk cannot say but that the horse are
hearty and in spirits."

Animated by the natural impetuosity and fire of
his temper, young Bucklaw rushed on with the
careless speed of a whirlwind. Ravenswood was
scarce more moderate in his pace, for his was a
mind unwillingly roused from contemplative inac-
tivity, but which, when once put into motion, ac-
quired a spirit of forcible and violent progression.
Neither was his eagerness proportioned in all cases
to the motive of impulse, but might be compared
to the speed of a stone, which rushes with like fury
down the hill, whether it was first put in motion
by the arm of a giant or the hand of a boy. He
felt, therefore, in no ordinary degree, the headlong
impulse of the chase, a pastime so natural to youth
of all ranks, that it seems rather to be an inherent
passion in our animal nature, which levels all dif-
ferences of rank and education, than an acquired
habit of rapid exercise.

The repeated bursts of the French horn, which
was then always used for the encouragement and
direction of the hounds — the deep, though distant
baying of the pack — the half-heard cries of the
huntsmen — the half-seen forms which were dis-
covered, now emerging from glens which crossed the
moor, now sweeping over its surface, now picking
their way where it was impeded by morasses ; and,
above all, the feeling of his own rapid motion, ani-
mated the Master of Eavenswood, at least for the
moment, above the recollections of a more painful
nature by which he was surrounded. The first

9

I30 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

thing which recalled him to those unpleasing cir-
cumstaaces, was feeling that his horse, notwith-
standing all the advantages which he received from
his rider's knowledge of the country, was unable
to keep up with the chase. As he drew his bridle
up with the bitter feeling, that his poverty exclu-
ded him from the favourite recreation of his fore-
fathers, and indeed their sole employment when not
engaged in military pursuits, he was accosted by a
well-mounted stranger, who, unobserved, had kept
near him during the earlier part of his career.

" Your horse is blown," said the man, with a com-
plaisance seldom used in a hunting-field. " Might I
crave your honour to make use of mine ? "

" Sir," said Eavenswood, more surprised than
pleased at such a proposal, " I really do not know
how I have merited such a favour at a stranger's
hands."

" Never ask a question about it, Master," said
Bucklaw, who, with great unwillingness, had hitherto
reined in his own gallant steed, not to outride his
host and entertainer. " Take the goods the gods
provide you, as the great John Dryden says —
or stay — here, my friend, lend me that horse ; I
see you have been puzzled to rein him up this half
hour. I'll take the devil out of him for you. Now,
Master, do you ride mine, which will carry you like
an eagle."

And throwing the rein of his own horse to the
Master of Eavenswood, he sprung upon that which
the stranger resigned to him, and continued his ca-
reer at full speed.

" Was ever so thoughtless a being ! " said the
Master ; " and you, my friend, how could you trust
him with your horse ? "

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 131

" The horse," said the man, " belongs to a per-
son who will make your honour, or any of your
honourable friends, most welcome to him, flesh and
fell."

" And the owner's name is ? " asked Eavens-

wood.

" Your honour must excuse me, you will learn
that from himself. — If you please to take your
friend's horse, and leave me your galloway, I will
meet you after the fall of the stag, for I hear they
are blowing him at bay."

" I believe, my friend, it will be the best way to
recover your good horse for you," answered Eavens-
wood ; and mounting the nag of his friend Buck-
law, he made all the haste in his power to the spot
where the blast of the horn announced that the
stag's career was nearly terminated.

These jovial sounds were intermixed with the
huntsmen's shouts of " Hyke a Talbot ! Hyke a
Teviot ! now, boys, now ! " and similar cheering
halloos of the olden hunting-field, to which the
impatient yelling of the hounds, now close on the
object of their pursuit, gave a lively and unremit-
ting chorus. The straggling riders began now to
rally towards the scene of action, collecting from
different points as to a common centra

Bucklaw kept the start which he had gotten, and
arrived first at the spot, where the stag, incapable
of sustaining a more prolonged flight, had turned
upon the hounds, and, in the hunter's phrase, was
at bay. With his stately head bent down, his sides
white with foam, his eves strained betwixt rafie and
terror, the hunted animal had now in his turn be-
come an object of intimidation to his pursuers. The
hunters came up one by one, and watched an oppor-

132 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

tunity to assail him with some advantage, which, in
such circumstances, can only be done with caution.
The dogs stood aloof and bayed loudly, intimating
at once eagerness and fear, and each of the sports-
men seemed to expect that his comrade would take
upon him the perilous task of assaulting and dis-
abling the animal. The ground, which was a hol-
low in the common or moor, afforded little advan-
tage for approaching the stag unobserved ; and
general was the shout of triumph when Bucklaw,
with the dexterity proper to an accomplished cava-
lier of the day, sprang from his horse, and dashing
suddenly and swiftly at the stag, brought him to
the ground by a cut on the hind leg with his short
hunting sword. The pack, rushing in upon their
disabled enemy, soon ended his painful struggles,
and solemnized his fall with their clamour — the
hunters, with their horns and voices, whooping and
blowing a mort, or death-note, which resounded far
over the billows of the adjacent ocean.

The huntsman then withdrew the hounds from
the throttled stag, and on his knee presented his
knife to a fair female form, on a white palfrey,
whose terror, or perhaps her compassion, had till
then kept her at some distance. She wore a black
silk riding-mask, which was then a common fashion,
as well for preserving the complexion from sun and
rain, as from an idea of decorum, which did not per-
mit a lady to appear barefaced while engaged in a
boisterous sport, and attended by a promiscuous
company. The richness of her dress, however, as
well as the mettle and form of her palfrey, together
with the silvan compliment paid to her by the hunts-
man, pointed her out to Bucklaw as the principal per-
son in the field. It was not without a feeling of pity.

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 133

approaching even to contempt, that this enthusiastic
hunter observed her refuse the huntsman's knife, pre-
sented to her for the purpose of making the first in-
cision in the stag's breast, and thereby discovering
the quality of the venison. He felt more than half
inclined to pay his compliments to her ; but it had
been Bucklaw's misfortune, that his habits of life
had not rendered him familiarly acquainted with
the higher and better classes of female society, so
that, with all his natural audacity, he felt sheepish
and bashful when it became necessary to address a
lady of distinction.

Taking unto himself heart of grace, (to use his
own phrase,) he did at length summon up resolu-
tion enough to give the fair huntress good time of
the day, and trust that her sport had answered her
expectation. Her answer was very courteously and
modestly expressed, and testified some gratitude to
the gallant cavalier, whose exploit had terminated
the chase so adroitly, when the hounds and hunts-
men seemed somewhat at a stand.

" Uds dasjgers and scabbard, madam," said Buck-
law, whom this observation brought at once upon
his own ground, " there is no difficulty or merit in
that matter at all, so that a fellow is not too much
afraid of having a pair of antlers in his guts. I
have hunted at force five hundred times, madam ;
and I never yet saw the stag at bay, by land or
water, but I durst have gone roundly in on him. It
is all use and wont, madam ; and I'll tell you, madam,
for all that, it must be done with good heed and
caution ; and you will do well, madam, to have
your hunting-sword both right sharp and double-
edged, that you may strike either fore-handed or
back-handed, as you see reason, for a hurt with

134 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

a buck's horn is a perilous and somewhat venomous
matter."

" I am afraid, sir," said the young lady, and her
smile was scarce concealed by her vizard, " I shall
have little use for such careful preparation."

" But the gentleman says very right for all that,
my lady," said an old huntsman, who had listened
to Bucklaw's harangue with no small edification ;
"and I have heard my father say, who was a fores-
ter at the Cabrach, that a wild boar's gaunch is
more easily healed than a hurt from the deer's horn,
for so says the old woodman's rhyme, —

If thou be liuit witli liorn of liart, it brings thee to thy bier ;
But tusk of boar shall leeches heal — thereof have lesser fear.'

"An I might advise," continued Bucklaw, who
was now in his element, and desirous of assuming
the whole management, " as the hounds are surbated
and weary, the head of the stag should be cabaged
in order to reward them ; and if I may presume to
speak, the huntsman, who is to break up the stag,
ought to drink to your good ladyship's health a good
lusty bicker of ale, or a tass of brandy ; for if he
breaks him up without drinking, the venison will
not keep well."

This very agreeable prescription received, as will
be readily believed, all acceptation from the hunts-
man, who, in requital, offered to Bucklaw the com-
pliment of his knife, which the young lady had de-
clined. This polite proffer was seconded by his
mistress.

" I believe, sir," she said, withdrawing herself from
the circle," that my father, for whose amusement Lord
Bittlebrains' hounds have been out to-day, will read-

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 135

ily surrender all care of these matters to a gentle-
man of your experience."

Then, bending gracefully from her horse, she
wished him good morning, and, attended by one or
two domestics, who seemed immediately attached
to her service, retired from the scene of action, to
which Bucklaw, too much delighted with an oppor-
tunity of displaying his wood-craft to care about
man or woman either, paid little attention ; but was
soon stript to his doublet, with tucked-up sleeves,
and naked arms up to the elbows in blood and
grease, slashing, cutting, hacking, and hewing, with
the precision of Sir Tristrem himself, and wrangling
and disputing with all around him concerning
nombles, briskets, flankards, and raven-bones, then
usual terms of the art of hunting, or of butchery,
whichever the reader chooses to call it, which are
now probably antiquated.

When Eavenswood, who followed a short space
behind his friend, saw that the stag had fallen, his
temporary ardour for the chase gave way to that
feeling of reluctance which he endured, at encoun-
tering in his fallen fortunes the gaze whether of
equals or inferiors. He reined up his horse on the
top of a gentle eminence, from which he observed
the busy and gay scene beneath him, and heard the
whoops of the huntsmen gaily mingled with the cry
of the dogs, and the neighing and trampling of the
horses. But these jovial sounds fell sadly on the ear
of the ruined nobleman. The chase, with all its
train of excitations, has ever since feudal times been
accounted the almost exclusive privilege of the aris-
tocracy, and was anciently their chief employment
in times of peace. The sense that he was excluded
by his situation from enjoying the silvan sport,

136 TALES OF MY LANDLORD

which his rank assigned to him as a special preroga-
tive, and the feeling that new men were now exer-
cising it over the downs, which had been jealously
reserved by his ancestors for their own amusement,
while he, the heir of the domain, was fain to hold
himself at a distance from their party, awakened
reflections calculated to depress deeply a mind like
Eavenswood's, which was naturally contemplative
and melancholy. His pride, however, soon shook
off this feeling of dejection, and it gave way to im-
patience upon finding that his volatile friend Buck-
law seemed in no hurry to return with his borrowed
steed, which Eavenswood, before leaving the field,
wished to see restored to the obliging owner. As
he was about to move towards the group of as-
sembled huntsmen, he was joined by a horseman,
who like himself had kept aloof during the fall of
the deer.

This personage seemed stricken in years. He
wore a scarlet cloak, buttoning high upon his face,
and his hat was unlooped and slouched, probably
by way of defence against the weather. His horse,
a strong and steady palfrey, was calculated for a
rider who proposed to witness the sport of the day,
rather than to share it. An attendant waited at
some distance, and the whole equipment was that
of an elderly gentleman of rank and fashion. He
accosted Eavenswood very politely, but not with-
out some embarrassment.

" You seem a gallant young gentleman, sir," he said,
" and yet appear as indifferent to this brave sport as
if you had my load of years on your shoulders."

" I have followed the sport with more spirit on
other occasions," replied the Master ; " at present,
late events in my family must be my apology —

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 137

and besides," he added, " I was but indifferently-
mounted at the beginning of the sport."

" I think," said the stranger, " one of my attend-
ants had the sense to accommodate your friend with
a horse."

" I was much indebted to his politeness and
yours," replied Kavenswood. "My friend is Mr.
Hayston of Bucklaw, whom I daresay you will be
sure to find in the thick of the keenest sportsmen.
He will return your servant's horse, and take my
pony in exchange — and will add," he concluded,
turning his horse's head from the stranger, ''• his best
acknowledgments to mine for the accommodation."

The Master of Ravenswood having thus expressed
himself, began to move homeward, with the man-
ner of one who has taken leave of his company.
But the stranger was not so to be shaken off. He
turned his horse at the same time, and rode in the
same direction so near to the Master, that, without
outriding him, which the formal civility of the time,
and the respect due to the stranger's age and re-
cent civility, would have rendered improper, he
could not easily escape from his company.

The stranger did not long remain silent. " This,
then," he said, " is the ancient Castle of Wolf's
Crag, often mentioned in the Scottish records,"
looking to the old tower, then darkening under the
influence of a stormy cloud, that formed its back-
ground ; for at the distance of a short mile, the
chase, having been circuitous, had brought the
hunters nearly back to the point which they had
attained, when Eavenswood and Bucklaw had set
forward to join them.

Eavenswood answered this observation with a
cold and distant assent.

138 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

" It was, as I have heard," continued the stran-
ger, unabashed by his coldness, " one of the most
early possessions of the honourable family of
Ravenswood."

" Their earliest possession," answered the Master,
" and probably their latest."

"I — I — I should hope not, sir," answered the
stranger, clearing his voice with more than one
cough, and making an effort to overcome a certain
degree of hesitation, — " Scotland knows what she
owes to this ancient family, and remembers their
frequent and honourable achievements. I have
little doubt, that, were it properly represented to
her majesty that so ancient and noble a family
were subjected to dilapidation — I mean to decay —
means might be found, ad re-cedificandum antiquam
domum "

" I will save you the trouble, sir, of discussing
this point farther," interrupted the Master, haught-
ily. " I am the heir of that unfortunate House —
I am the Master of Ravenswood. And you, sir,
who seem to be a gentleman of fashion and educa-
tion, must be sensible, that the next mortification
after being unhappy, is the being loaded with un-
desired commiseration."

" I beg your pardon, sir," said the elder horseman
— "I did not know — I am sensible I ought not
to have mentioned — nothing could be farther from
my thoughts than to suppose "

" There are no apologies necessary, sir," answered
Ravenswood, " for here, I suppose, our roads sepa-
rate, and I assure you that we part in perfect
equanimity on my side."

As speaking these words, he directed his horse's
head towards a narrow causeway, the ancient ap-

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 139

proach to Wolf's Crag, of wliieli it might be truly
said, in the words of the Bard of Hope, that

Travelled by few was tlie grass-cover'd road,
Where the hunter of deer and tlie warrior trode,
To his hills that encircle the sea.

But, ere he could disengage himself from his com-
panion, the young lady we have already mentioned
came up to join the stranger, followed by her
servants.

" Daughter," said the stranger to the masked
damsel, "this is the Master of Ravenswood."

It would have been natural that the gentleman
should have replied to this introduction ; but there
was something in the graceful form and retiring
modesty of the female to whom he was thus pre-
sented, which not only prevented him from enquir-
ing to whom, and by whom, the annunciation had
been made, but which even for the time struck him
absolutely mute. At this moment the cloud which
had long lowered above the height on which Wolf's
Crag is situated, and which now, as it advanced,
spread itself in darker and denser folds both over
land and sea, hiding the distant objects and obscur-
ing those which were nearer, turning the sea to a
leaden complexion, and the heath to a darker
brown, began now, by one or two distant peals, to
announce the thunders with which it was fraught ;
while two Hashes of lightning, following each other
very closely, showed in the distance the grey turrets
of Wolf's Crag, and, more nearly, the rolling billows
of the ocean, crested suddenly with red and dazzling
light.

The horse of the fair huntress showed symptoms
of impatience and restiveness, and it became im-

14© TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

possible for Eavenswood, as a man or a gentleman,
to leave her abruptly to tlie care of an aged father
or her menial attendants. He was, or believed
himself, obliged in courtesy to take hold of her
bridle, and assist her in managing the unruly ani-
mal. While he was thus engaged, the old gentle-
man observed that the storm seemed to increase —
that they were far from Lord Bittlebrains', whose
guests they were for the present — and that he
would be obliged to the Master of Eavenswood to
point him the way to the nearest place of refuge
from the storm. At the same time he . cast a
wistful and embarrassed look towards the Tower
of Wolf's Crag, which seemed to render it almost
impossible for the owner to avoid offering an old
man and a lady, in such an emergency, the tem-
porary use of his house. Indeed, the condition of
the young huntress made this courtesy indis-
pensable ; for, in the course of the services which
he rendered, he could not but perceive that she
trembled much, and was extremely agitated, from
her apprehensions, doubtless, of the coming storm,

I know not if the Master of Eavenswood shared
her terrors, but he was not entirely free from some-
thing like a similar disorder of nerves, as he observed,
"The Tower of Wolf's Crag has nothing to offer
beyond the shelter of its roof, but if that can be
acceptable at such a moment " — he paused, as if
the rest of the invitation stuck in his throat. But
the old gentleman, his self-constituted companion,
did not allow him to recede from the invitation,
which he had rather siiffered to be implied than
directly expressed.

" The storm," said the stranger, "must be an
apology for waving ceremony — his daughter's

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 141

health was weak — she had suffered much from
a recent alarm — he trusted their intrusion on the
Master of Eaveuswood's hospitality would not be
altogether unpardonable in the circumstances of the
case — his child's safety must be dearer to him
than ceremony."

There was no room to retreat. The Master of
Ravenswood led the way, continuing to keep hold
of the lady's bridle to prevent her horse from start-
ing at some unexpected explosion of thunder. He
was not so bewildered in his own hurried reflec-
tions, but that he remarked, that the deadly pale-
ness which had occupied her neck and temples, and
such of her features as the riding-mask left exposed,
gave place to a deep and rosy suffusion ; and he
felt with embarrassment that a flush was by tacit
sympathy excited in his own cheeks. The stran-
ger, with watchfulness which he disguised under
apprehensions for the safety of his daughter, con-
tinued to observe the expression of the Master's
countenance as they ascended the hill to Wolf's
Crag. When they stood in front of that ancient
fortress, Eaveuswood's emotions were of a very
complicated description ; and as he led the way into
the rude court-yard, and halloo'd to Caleb to give
attendance, there was a tone of sternness, almost
of fierceness, which seemed somewhat alien from
the courtesies of one who is receiving honoured
guests.

Caleb came ; and not the paleness of the fair
stranger at the first approach of the thunder, nor
the paleness of any other person, in any other cir-
cumstances whatever, equalled that which over-
came the thin cheeks of the disconsolate seneschal,
when he beheld this accession of guests to the

142 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

castle, and reflected that the dinner hour was fast
approaching. " Is he daft ? " he muttered to him-
self, — "is he clean daft a'thegither, to bring lords
and leddies, and a host of folk behint them, and
twal-o'-clock chappit ? " Then approaching the
Master, he craved pardon for having permitted the
rest of his people to go out to see the hunt, observ-
ing, that " they wad never think of his lordship
coming back till mirk night, and that he dreaded
they might play the truant."

" Silence, Balderstone ! " said Eavenswood, sternly ;
" your folly is unseasonable. — Sir and madam," he
said, turning to his guests, " this old man, and a yet
older and more imbecile female domestic, form my
whole retinue. Our means of refreshing you are
more scanty than even so miserable a retinue, and
a dwelling so dilapidated, might seem to promise
you ; but, such as they may chance to be, you may
command them."

The elder stranger, struck with the ruined and
even savage appearance of the Tower, rendered still
more disconsolate by the lowering and gloomy sky,
and perhaps not altogether unmoved by the grave
and determined voice in which their host addressed
them, looked round him anxiously, as if he half
repented the readiness with which he had accepted
the offered hospitality. But there was now no
opportunity of receding from the situation in which
he had placed himself.

As for Caleb, he was so utterly stunned by his
master's public and unqualified acknowledgment of
the nakedness of the land, that for two minutes he
could only mutter within his hebdomadal beard,
which had not felt the razor for six days, " He's
daft — clean daft — red wud, and awa wi't ! But

THE BRIDE OF LAI^DIERMOOR. 143

deil hae Caleb Balderstone," said he, collecting his
powers of invention and resource, "if the family
shall lose credit, if he were as mad as the seven
wise masters ! " He then boldly advanced, and in
spite of his master's frowns and impatience, gravely
asked, "if he should not serve up some slight
refection for the young leddy, and a glass of tokay,
or old sack — or '"

" Truce to this ill-timed foolery," said the Master,
sternly, — " put the horses into the stable, and
interrupt us no more with your absurdities."

"Your honour's pleasure is to be obeyed aboon a'
things," said Caleb ; " nevertheless, as for the sack
and tokay which it is not your noble guest's plea-
sure to accept "

But here the voice of Bucklaw, heard even above
the clattering of hoofs and braying of horns with
which it mingled, announced that he was scaling
the pathway to the Tower at the head of the greater
part of the gallant hunting train.

" The deil be in me," said Caleb, taking heart in
spite of this new invasion of Philistines, " if they
shall beat me yet ! The hellicat ne'er-do-weel ! —
to bring such a crew here, that will expect to find
brandy as plenty as ditch-water, and he kenning
sae absolutely the case in whilk we stand for the
present ! But I trow, could I get rid of thae gaping
gowks of flunkies that hae won into the court-yard
at the back of their betters, as mony a man gets
preferment, I could make a* right yet."

The measures which he took to execute this
dauntless resolution, the reader shall learn in the
next chapter.

CHAPTER X.

With throat unslaked, with black lips baked,

Agape they heard him call ;
Gramercy they for joy did grin,
And all at once their breath drew in,

As they had been drinking all.

Colekidge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner.

Hayston of Bucklaw was one of the thoughtless
class who never hesitate between their friend and
their jest. When it was announced that the prin-
cipal persons of the chase had taken their route
towards Wolf's Crag, the huntsmen, as a point ot
civility, offered to transfer the venison to that man
sion ; a proffer which was readily accepted by Buck
law, who thought much of the astonishment which
their arrival in full body would occasion poor old
Caleb Balderstone, and very little of the dilemma
to which he was about to expose his friend the
Master, so ill circumstanced to receive such a party.
But in old Caleb he had to do with a crafty and
alert antagonist, prompt at supplying, upon all
emergencies, evasions and excuses suitable, as he
thought, to the dignity of the family.

" Praise be blest ! " said Caleb to himself, " ae leaf
of the muckle gate has been swung to wi' yestreen's
wind, and I think I can manage to shut the ither."

But he was desirous, like a prudent governor, at
the same time to get rid, if possible, of the internal
enemy, in which light he considered almost every

THE BRIDE OF LAMMETlT^rOOE. 145

one who ate and drank, ere he took measures to
exclude those whom their jocund noise now pro-
nounced to be near at hand. He waited, therefore,
with impatience until his master had shown his
two principal guests into the Tower, and then com-
menced his operations.

" I think," he said to the stranger menials, " that
as they are bringing the stag's head to the castle in
all honour, we, who are in-dwellers, should receive
them at the gate."

The unwary grooms had no sooner hurried out, in
compliance with this insidious hint, than, one fold-
ing-door of the ancient gate being already closed by
the wind, as has been already intimated, honest
Caleb lost no time in shutting the other with a
clang, which resounded from donjon-vault to battle-
ment. Having thus secured the pass, he forthwith
indulged the excluded huntsmen in brief parley,
from a small projecting window, or shot-hole,
through which, in former days, the warders were
wont to reconnoitre those who presented themselves
before the gates. He gave them to understand, in a
short and pithy speech, that the gate of the castle
was never on any account opened during meal-times

— that his honour, the Master of Ravenswood, and
some guests of quality, had just sat down to dinner

— that there was excellent brandy at the hostler-
wife's at Wolf's-hope dow^n below — and he held out
some obscure hint that the reckoning would be dis-
charged by the Master ; but this was uttered in a
very dubious and oracular strain, for, like Louis
XIV., Caleb Balderstone hesitated to carry finesse
so far as direct falsehood, and was content to de-
ceive, if possible, without directly lying.

This annunciation was received with surprise by
10

£46 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

some, with laughter by others, and with dismay by
the expelled lackeys, who endeavoured to demon-
strate that their right of re-admission, for the pur-
pose of waiting upon their master and mistress, was
at least indisputable. But Caleb was not in a hu-
mour to understand or admit any distinctions. Ho
stuck to his original proposition with that dogged,
but convenient pertinacity, which is armed against
all conviction, and deaf to all reasoning. Bucklaw
now came from the rear of the party, and de-
manded admittance in a very angry tone. But the
resolution of Caleb was immovable.

" If the king on the throne were at the gate," he
declared, " his ten fingers should never open it con-
trair to the established use and wont of the family
of Eavenswood, and his duty as their head-servant."

Bucklaw was now extremely incensed, and with
more oaths and curses than we care to repeat, de-
clared himself most unworthily treated, and de-
manded peremptorily to speak with the Master of
Eavenswood himself. But to this, also, Caleb
turned a deaf ear.

" He's as soon a-bleeze as a tap of tow the lad
Bucklaw," he said ; " but the deil of ony master's
face he shall see till he has sleepit and waken'd on't.
He'll ken himsell better the morn's morning. It
sets the like o' him, to be bringing a crew of drunken
hunters here, when he kens there is but little pre-
paration to sloken his ain drought." And he dis-
appeared from the window, leaving them all to
digest their exclusion as they best might.

But another person, of whose presence Caleb, in
the animation of the debate, was not aware, had lis-
tened in silence to its progress. This was the prin-
cipal domestic of the stranger — a man r f trust and

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 147

consequence — the same, who, in the hunting-field,
had accommodated Bucklaw with the use of his
horse. He was in the staljle when Caleb had con-
trived the expulsion of his fellow-servants, and thus
avoided sharing the same fate from which his per-
sonal importance would certainly not have other-
wise saved him.

This personage perceived the manoeuvre of Caleb,
easily appreciated the motive of his conduct, and
knowing his master's intentions towards the family
of Eavenswood, had no difficulty as to the line
of conduct he ought to adopt. He took the place of
Caleb (unperceived by the latter) at the post of
audience which he had just left, and announced to
the assembled domestics, " that it was his master's
pleasure that Lord Bittlebrains' retinue and his own
should go down to the adjacent change-house, and
call for what refreshments they might have occa-
sion for, and he should take care to discharge the
la wing."

The jolly troop of huntsmen retired from the in-
hospitable gate of Wolf's Crag, execrating, as they
descended the steep path-way, the niggard and un-
worthy disposition of the proprietor, and damning,
with more than silvan license, both the castle and
its inhabitants. Bucklaw, with many qualities
which would have made him a man of worth and
judgment in more favourable circumstances, had
been so utterly neglected in point of education, that
he was apt to think and feel according to the ideas
of the companions of his pleasures. The praises
which had recently been heaped upon himself he
contrasted with the general abuse now levelled
against Ptavenswood — he recalled to his mind the
dull and monotonous days he had spent in the

148 TAIiES OF MY LANDLORD.

Tower of Wolf's Crag, compared witli the jovialty
of his usual life — he felt, with great indignation,
his exclusion from the castle, which he considered
as a gross affront, and every mingled feeling led him
to break off the union which he had formed with
the Master of Eavenswood.

On arriving at the change-house of the village of
Wolf's-hope, he unexpectedly met with an old ac-
quaintance just alighting from his horse. This was
no other than the very respectable Captain Craigen-
gelt, who immediately came up to him, and, without
appearing to retain any recollection of the indifferent
terms on which they had parted, shook him by the
hand in the warmest manner possible. A warm
grasp of the hand was what Bucklaw could never
help returning with cordiality, and no sooner had
Craigengelt felt the pressure of his fingers than he
knew the terms on which he stood with him.

" Long life to you, Bucklaw ! " he exclaimed ;
" there's life for honest folk in this bad world yet ! "

The Jacobites at this period, with what propriety
I know not, used, it must be noticed, the term of
honest men as peculiarly descriptive of their own
party.

" Ay, and for others besides, it seems," answered
Bucklaw; "otherways, how came you to venture
hither, noble Captain ? "

" Who — I ? — I am as free as the wind at Mar-
tinmas, that pays neither land-rent nor annual ; all
is explained — all settled with the honest old dri-
vellers yonder of Auld Eeekie — Pooh ! pooh ! they
dared not keep me a week of days in durance. A
certain person has better friends among them than
vou wot of, and can serve a friend when it is least
likely."

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 149

" Pshaw ! " answered Hayston, who perfectly knew
and thoroughly despised the character of this man,
" none of your cogging gibberish — tell me truly,
are you at liberty and in safety ? "

" Free and safe as a whig bailie on the causeway
of his own borough, or a canting presbyterian min-
ister in his own pulpit — and I came to tell you
that you need not remain in hiding any longer."

"Then I suppose you call yourself my friend,
Captain Craigengelt ? " said Bucklaw.

" Friend ! " replied Craigengelt, " my cock of the
pit ? why, I am thy very Achates, man, as I have
heard scholars say — hand and glove — bark and
tree — thine to life and death ! "

"I'll try that in a moment," answered Bucklaw.
" Thou art never without money, however thou
comest by it. Lend me two pieces to wash the
dust out of these honest fellows' throats in the first
place, and then "

" Two pieces ? twenty are at thy service, my lad
— and twenty to back them,"

"Ay — say you so?" said Bucklaw, pausing, for
his natural penetration led him to suspect some
extraordinary motive lay couched under such an
excess of generosity. " Craigengelt, you are either
an honest fellow in right good earnest, and I scarce
know how to believe that — or you are cleverer than
I took you for, and I scarce know how to believe
that either."

" L'uii n'emjjeche j9«s I' autre," said Craigengelt,
" touch and try — the gold is good as ever was
weighed."

He put a quantity of gold pieces into Bucklaw's
hand, which he thrust into his pocket without either
counting or looking at them, only observing, " that

ISO TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

he was so circumstanced that he must enlist, though
the devil offered the press-money ; " and then turn-
ing to the huntsmen, he called out, " Come along,
my lads — all is at my cost."

" Long life to Bucklaw ! " shouted the men of the
chase.

"And confusion to him that takes his share of
the sport, and leaves the hunters as dry as a drum-
head," added another, hy way of corollary.

" The house of Eavenswood was ance a gude
and an honourable house in this land," said an old
man, "but it's lost its credit this day, and the
Master has shown himself no better than a greedy
cullion."

And with this conclusion, which was unanimously
agreed to by all who heard it, they rushed tumultu-
ously into the house of entertainment, where they
revelled till a late hour. The jovial temper of
Bucklaw seldom permitted him to be nice in the
choice of his associates ; and on the present occa-
sion, when his joyous debauch received additional
zest from the intervention of an unusual space of
sobriety, and almost abstinence, he was as happy
in leading the revels, as if his comrades had been
sons of princes. Craigengelt had his own purposes,
in fooling him up to the top of his bent ; and hav-
ing some low humour, much impudence, and the
power of singing a good song, understanding besides
thoroughly the disposition of his regained associate,
he readily succeeded in involving him bumper-deep
in the festivity of the meeting.

A very different scene was in the meantime pass-
ing in the Tower of "Wolf's Crag. "When the Mas-
ter of Eavenswood left the court-yard, too much
busied with his own perplexed reflections to pay

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR, 151

attention to the manceiivre of Caleb, he ushered his
guests into the great hall of the castle.

The indefatigable Balderstone, who, from choice
or habit, worked on from morning to night, had, by
degrees, cleared this desolate apartment of the con-
fused relics of the funeral banquet, and restored it
to some order. But not all his skill and labour, in
disposing to advantage the little furniture which
remained, could remove the dark and disconsolate
appearance of those ancient and disfurnished walls.
The narrow windows, flanked by deep indentures
into the wall, seemed formed rather to exclude
than to admit the cheerful light ; and the heavy
and gloomy appearance of the thunder-sky added
still farther to the obscurity.

As Eavenswood, with the grace of a gallant of
that period, but not without a certain stiffness and
embarrassment of manner, handed the young lady
to the upper end of the apartment, her father re-
mained standing more near to the door, as if about
to disengage himself from his hat and cloak. At
this moment the clang of the portal was heard, a
sound at which the stranger started, stepped hastily
to the window, and looked with an air of alarm at
Eavenswood, when he saw that the gate of the court
was shut, and his domestics excluded.

"You have nothing to fear, sir," said Eavens-
wood, gravely ; " this roof retains the means of
giving protection, though not welcome. Methinks,"
he added, " it is time that I should know who they
are that have thus highly honoured my ruined
dwelling ? "

The young lady remained silent and motionless,
and the father, to whom the question was more
directly addressed, seemed in the situation of a per-

152 Tales of my landlord.

former who has ventured to take upon himself a
part which he finds himself unable to present, and
who comes to a pause when it is most to be expected
that he should speak. "V\1iile he endeavoured to
cover his embarrassment with the exterior ceremo-
nials of a well-bred demeanour, it was obvious, that
in making his bow, one foot shuffled forward, as if
to advance — the other backward, as if with the
purpose of escape — and as he undid the cape of his
coat, and raised his beaver from his face, his fingers
fumbled as if the one had been linked with rusted
iron, or the other had weighed equal with a stone
of lead. The darkness of the sky seemed to in-
crease, as if to supply the want of those mufflings
which he laid aside with such evident reluc-
tance. The impatience of Eavenswood increased
also in proportion to the delay of the stranger, and
he appeared to struggle under agitation, though
probably from a very different cause. He laboured
to restrain his desire to speak, wliile the stranger,
to all appearance, was at a loss for words to express
what he felt it necessary to say. At length Ravens-
wood's impatience broke the bounds he had imposed
upon it.

" I perceive," he said, " that Sir "William Ashton
is unwilling to announce himself in the Castle of
Wolf's Crag."

" I had hoped it was unnecessary," said the Lord
Keeper, relieved from his silence, as a spectre by
the voice of the exorcist; "and I am obliged to you,
Master of Eavenswood, for breaking the ice at once,
where circumstances — unhappy circumstances, let
me call them — rendered self-introduction peculiarly
awkward."

" And I am not then," said the Master of Eavens-

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 153

wood, gravely, " to consider the honour of this visit
as purely accidental ? "

" Let us distinguish a little," said the Keeper,
assuming an appearance of ease which perhaps his
heart Was a stranger to ; " this is an honour which
I have eagerly desired for some time, but which I
might never have obtained, save for the accident of
the storm. My daughter and I are alike grateful
for this opportunity of thanking the brave man to
whom she owes her life and I mine."

The hatred which divided the great families in
the feudal times had lost little of its bitterness,
though it no longer expressed itself in deeds of
open violence. Not the feelings which Eavenswood
had begun to entertain towards Lucy Ashton, not
the hospitality due to his guests, were able entirely
to subdue, though they warmly combated, the deep
passions which arose within him, at beholding his
father's foe standing in the hall of the family of
which he had in a .great measure accelerated the
ruin. His looks glanced from the father to the
daughter with an irresolution, of which Sir William
Ashton did not think it proper to await the con-
clusion. He had now disembarrassed himself of his
riding-dress, and walking up to his daughter, he
undid the fastening of her mask.

" Lucy, my love," he said, raising her and leading
her towards Ravenswood, " lay aside your mask, and
let us express our gratitude to the Master openly and
barefaced."

" If he will condescend to accept it," was all that
Lucy uttered ; but in a tone so sweetly modulated,
and which seemed to imply at once a feeling and a
forgiving of the cold reception to which they were
exposed, that, coming from a creature so innocent

154 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

and so beautiful, her words cut Eavenswood to the
very heart for his harshness. He muttered some-
thing of surprise, something of confusion, and, end-
ing with a warm and eager expression of his happiness
at being able to afford her shelter under his roof, he
saluted her, as the ceremonial of the time enjoined
upon such occasions. Their cheeks had touched
and were withdrawn from each other — Eavens-
wood had not quitted the hand which he had taken
in kindly courtesy — a blush, which attached more
consequence by far than was usual to such cere-
mony, still mantled on Lucy Ashton's beautiful
cheek, when the apartment was suddenly illumin-
ated by a flash of lightning, which seemed abso-
lutely to swallow the darkness of the hall. Every
object might have been for an instant seen distinctly.
The slight and half-sinking form of Lucy Ashton, the
well-proportioned and stately figure of Eavenswood,
his dark features, and the fiery, yet irresolute ex-
pression of his eyes, — the old arms and scutcheons
which hung on the walls of the apartment, were for
an instant distinctly visible to the Keeper by a
strong red brilliant glare of light. Its disappear-
ance was almost instantly followed by a burst of
thunder, for the storm-cloud was very near the
castle ; and the peal was so sudden and dreadful,
that the old tower rocked to its foundation, and
every inmate concluded it was falling upon them.
The soot, which had not been disturbed for cen-
turies, showered down the huge tunnelled chimneys
— lime and dust flew in clouds from the wall ;
and, whether the lightning had actually struck the
castle, or whether through the violent concussion of
the air, several heavy stones were hurled from the
mouldering battlements into the roaring sea be-

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 155

neath. It might seem as if the ancient founder of
the castle were bestriding the thunder-storm, and
proclaiming his displeasure at the reconciliation of
his descendant with the enemy of his house.

The consternation was general, and it required
the efforts of both the Lord Keeper and Eavens-
wood to keep Lucy from fainting. Thus was the
Master a second time engaged in the most delicate
and dangerous of all tasks, that of affording sup-
port and assistance to a beautiful and helpless being,
who, as seen before in a similar situation, had al-
ready become a favourite of his imagination, both
when awake and when slumbering. If the Genius
of the House really condemned a union betwixt
the Master and his fair guest, the means by which
he expressed his sentiments were as unhappily
chosen as if he had been a mere mortal. The traia
of little attentions, absolutely necessary to soothe
the young lady's mind, and aid her in composing
her spirits, necessarily threw the ]\Iaster of Ravens-
wood into such an intercourse with her father, as
was calculated, for the moment at least, to break
down the barrier of feudal enmity which divided
them. To express himself churlishly, or even coldly,
towards an old man, whose daughter (and such a
daughter) lay before them, overpowered with nat-
ural terror — and all this under his own roof —
the thing was impossible ; and by the time that
Lucy, extending a hand to each, was able to thank
them for their kindness, the Master felt that his
sentiments of hostility towards the Lord Keeper
were by no means those most predominant in his
bosom.

The weather, her state of health, the absence of
her attendants, all prevented the possibility of Lucy

1 5b TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

Ashton renewing her journey to Bittlebrains-
House, which was full five miles distant ; and the
Master of Eavenswood could not but, in common
courtesy, offer the shelter of his roof for the rest
of the day and for the night. But a flush of less
soft expression, a look much more habitual to his
features, resumed predominance when he mentioned
how meanly he was provided for the entertainment
of his guests.

"Do not mention deficiencies," said the Lord
Keeper, eager to interrupt him and prevent his
resuming an alarming topic ; " you are preparing
to set out for the Continent, and your house is prob-
ably for the present unfurnished. All this we
understand ; but if you mention inconvenience, you
will oblige us to seek accommodations in the
hamlet."

As the Master of Eavenswood was about to reply,
the door of the hall opened, and Caleb Balderstone
rushed in.

CHAPTER XL

Ler them have meat enough, womaa — half a hen ;
There be old rotteu pilchards — put them off too ;
' Tis but a little new anointing of them,
And a strong onion, that confounds the savour.

Love's Pilgrimage.

The thunderbolt, which had stunned all who were
within hearmg of it, had only served to awaken
the bold and inventive genius of the flower of Ma-
jors Domo. Almost before the clatter had ceased,
and while there was yet scarce an assurance whether
the castle was standing or falling, Caleb exclaimed,
" Heavens be praised ! — this comes to hand like
the boul of a pint stoup." He then barred the
kitchen door in the face of the Lord Keeper's ser-
vant, whom he perceived returning from the party
at the gate, and muttering, " How the deil cam he
in ? — but deil may care — Mysie, what are ye sit-
ting shaking and greeting in the chimney-neuk for ?
Come here — or stay where ye are, and skirl as loud
as ye can — it's a' ye're gude for — I say, ye auld
deevil, skirl— skirl — louder — louder, woman — gar
the gentles hear ye in the ha' — I have heard ye as
far off as the Bass for a less matter. And stay —
down wi' that crockery " —

And with a sweeping blow, he threw down from
a shelf some articles of pewter and earthenware.
He exalted his voice amid the clatter, shouting and
roaring in a manner which changed Mysie's hyster-

158 TALES OE MY LANDLORD.

ical terrors of the thunder into fears that her old
fellow-servant was gone distracted. " He has dung
down a* the bits o' pigs, too — the only thing we had
left to haud a soup milk — and he has spilt tlie
hatted kitt that was for the Master's dinner. Mercy
save us, the auld man's gaen clean and clear wud
wi' the thunner ! "

" Haud your tongue, ye b ! " said Caleb, in

the impetuous and overbearing triumph of success-
ful invention, "a's provided now — dinner and a'
thing — the thunner' s done a' in a clap of a hand ! "

" Puir man, he's muckle astray," said Mysie,
looking at him with a mixture of pity and alarm ;
" I wish he may ever come hame to himsell again."

" Here, ye auld doited deevil," said Caleb, still
exulting in his extrication from a dilemma which
had seemed insurmountable ; " keep the strange
man out of the kitchen — swear the thunner came
down the chimney, and spoiled the best dinner ye
ever dressed — beef — bacon — kid — lark — leveret
— wild fowl — venison, and what not. Lay it on
thick, and never mind expenses. I'll awa up to the
ha' — make a' the confusion ye can — but be sure
ye keep out the strange servant."

With these charges to his ally, Caleb posted up
to the hall, but stopping to reconnoitre through an
aperture, which time, for the convenience of many
a domestic in succession, had made in the door, and
perceiving the situation of Miss Ashton, he had
prudence enough to make a pause, both to avoid
adding to her alarm, and in order to secure atten-
tion to his account of the disastrous effects of the
thunder.

But when he perceived that the lady was recov-
ered, and heard the conversation turn upon the

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 159

accommodation and refreshment which the oustle
afforded, he thought it time to burst into the r^om.
in the manner announced in the last chapter.

" WuU a wins ! — wull a wins ! such a misior-
tune to bef a' the House of Eavenswood, and I to live
to see it ! "

" "What is the matter, Caleb ? " said his master,
somewhat alarmed in his turn ; " has any part of
the castle fallen ? "

" Castle fa'an ? — na, but the sute's fa'an, and the
thunner's come right down the kitchen-lumm, and
the things are a' lying here awa, there awa, like
the Laird 0' Hotchpotch's lands — and wi' brave
guests of honour and quality to entertain " — a low
bow here to Sir William Ashton and his daughter
— " and naething left in the house fit to present for
dinner — or for supper either, for aught that I can
see ! "

" I verily believe you, Caleb," said Eavenswood,
drily.

Balderstone here turned to his master a half-up-
braiding, half-imploring countenance, and edged
towards him as he repeated, " It was nae great
matter of preparation ; but just something added to
your honour's ordinary course of fare — petty cover,
as they say at the Louvre — three courses and the
fruit."

" Keep your intolerable nonsense to yourself,
you old fool ! " said Eavenswood, mortified at his
officiousness, yet not knowing how to contradict
him, without the risk of giving rise to scenes yet
more ridiculous.

Caleb saw his advantage, and resolved to improve
it. But first, observing that the Lord Keeper's
servant entered the apartment, and spoke apart with

»6o TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

'us master, he took the same opportunity to whis-
Der a few words into Ravenswood's ear — " Hand
your tongue, for heaven's sake, sir — if it's my plea-
sure to hazard my soul in telling lees for the honour
of the family, it's nae business o* yours — and if ye
let me gang on quietly, I'se be moderate in my
banquet; but if ye contradict me, deil but I dress
ye a dinner fit for a duke ! "

Eavenswood, in fact, thought it would be best to
let his officious butler run on, who proceeded to
enumerate upon his fingers, — "No muckle provi-
sion — might hae served four persons of honour, —
first course, capons in white broth — roast kid —
bacon with reverence, — second course, roasted leve-
ret — butter crabs — a veal florentine, — third
course, black-cock — it's black eneugh now wi' the
sute — plumdamas — a tart — a flam — and some
nonsense sweet things, and comfits — and that's a',"
he said, seeing the impatience of his master ; " that's
just a' was o't — forby the apples and pears."

Miss Ashton had by degrees gathered her spirits,
so far as to pay some attention to what was going
on ; and observing the restrained impatience of
Ravenswood, contrasted with the peculiar determi-
nation of manner with which Caleb detailed his
imaginary banquet, the whole struck her as so ridi-
culous, that, despite every effort to the contrary,
<?he burst into a fit of incontrollable laughter, in
which she was joined by her father, though with
more moderation, and finally by the Master of
Ravenswood himself, though conscious that the jest
was at his own expense. Their mirth — for a scene
which we read with little emotion often appears
extremely ludicrous to the spectators — made the
old vault ring again. They ceased — they renewed

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. i6i

— they ceased — they renewed again their shouts of
laughter ! Caleb, in the meantime, stood his ground
with a grave, angry, and scornful dignity, which
greatly enhanced the ridicule of the scene, and the
mirth of the spectators.

At length, when the voices, and nearly the
strength of the laughers, were exhausted, he ex-
claimed, with very little ceremony, " The deil's in
the gentles ! they breakfast sae lordly, that the loss
of the best dinner ever cook pat fingers to, makes
them as merry as if it were the best jeest in a'
George Buchanan(A:). If there was as little in your
honours' wames, as there is in Caleb Balderstone's,
less caickling wad serve ye on sic a gravaminous
subject."

Caleb's blunt expression of resentment again
awakened the mirth of the company, which, by the
way, he regarded not only as an aggression upon
the dignity of the family, but a special contempt of
the eloquence with which he himself had summed
up the extent of their supposed losses ; — "a de-
scription of a dinner," as he said afterwards to
Mysie, " that wad hae made a fu' man hungry, and
them to sit there laughing at it ! "

"But," said Miss Ashton, composing her coun-
tenance as well as she could, " are all these deli-
cacies so totally destroyed, that no scrap can be
collected ? "

" Collected, my leddy ! what wad ye collect out
of the sute and the ass ? Ye may gang down your-
sell, and look into our kitchen — the cookmaid in
the trembling exies — ■ the gude vivers lying a' about
— beef — capons, and white broth — tiorentine and
flams — • bacon, wi' reverence, and a' the sweet con-
fections and whim-whams ; ye'U see them a', my
11

1 62 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

leddy — that is," said he, correcting himself, " ye'll
no see ony of them now, for the cook has soopit
them up, as was weel her part ; but ye'll see the
white broth where it was spilt. I pat my fingers
in it, and it tastes as like sour-milk as ony thing
else ; if that isna the effect of thunner, I kenna
what is. — This gentleman here couldna but hear the
clash of our haill dishes, china and silver thegither ? "

The Lord Keeper's domestic, though a states-
man's attendant, and of course trained to command
his countenance upon all occasions, was somewhat
discomposed by this appeal, to which he only an-
swered by a bow.

" I think, Mr. Butler," said the Lord Keeper,
who began to be afraid lest the prolongation of this
scene should at length displease Eavenswood, — "I
think, that were you to retire with my servant
Lockhard — he has travelled, and is quite accus-
tomed to accidents and contingencies of every kind,
and I hope betwixt you, you may find out some
mode of supply at this emergency."

" His honour kens," — said Caleb, who, however
hopeless of himself of accomplishing what was de-
sirable, would, like the high-spirited elephant,
rather have died in the effort, than brooked the aid
of a brother in commission, — " his honour kens
weel I need nae counsellor, when the honour of the
house is concerned."

" I should be unjust if I denied it, Caleb," said his
master ; " but your art lies chiefly in making apol-
ogies, upon which we can no more dine, than upon
the bill of fare of our thunder-blasted dinner. Now,
possibly, Mr. Lockhard's talent may consist in find-
ing some substitute for that, which certainly is not,
and has in all probability never been."

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 163

" Your honour is pleased to be facetious," said
Caleb, "but I am sure, that for the warst, for a
walk as far as Wolf's-hope, I could dine forty men,
— no that the folk there deserve your honour's cus-
tom. They hae been ill advised in the matter of
the duty-eggs and butter, I winna deny that."

" Do go consult together," said the Master, " go
down to the village, and do the best you can. We
must not let our guests remain without refresh-
ment, to save the honour of a ruined family. And
here, Caleb — take my purse ; I believe that will
prove your best ally."

" Purse ? purse, indeed ? " quoth Caleb, indig-
nantly flinging out of the room, — " what suld I do
wi' your honour's purse, on your ain grund ? I trust
we are no to pay for our ain ? "

The servants left the hall ; and the door was no
sooner shut, than the Lord Keeper began to apolo-
gize for the rudeness of his mirth ; and Lucy to
hope she had given no pain or offence to the kind-
hearted faithful old man.

" Caleb and I must both learn, madam, to undergo
with good humour, or at least with patience,
the ridicule which eveiywhere attaches itself to
poverty."

"You do yourself injustice. Master of "Ravens-
wood, on my word of honour," answered his elder
guest. " I believe I know more of your affairs
than you do yourself, and I hope to show you, that
I am interested in them ; and that — in short, that
your prospects are better than you apprehend. In
the meantime, I can conceive nothing so respect-
able, as the spirit which rises above misfortune, and
prefers honourable privations to debt or dependence."

Whether from fear of offending the delicacy.

i64 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

or awakening the pride of the Master, the Lord
Keeper made these allusions with an appearance of
fearful and hesitating reserve, and seemed to be
afraid that he was intruding too far, in venturing
to touch, however lightly, upon such a topic, even
when the Master had led to it. In short, he ap-
peared at once pushed on by his desire of appear-
ing friendly, and held back by the fear of intrusion.
It was no wonder that the Master of Eavens-
wood, little acquainted as he then was with life,
should have given this consummate courtier credit
for more sincerity than was probably to be found in
a score of his cast. He answered, however, with
reserve, that he was indebted to all who might
think well of him ; and, apologizing to his guests,
he left the hall, in order to make such arrangements
for their entertainment as circumstances admitted.

Upon consulting with old Mysie, the accommo-
dations for the night were easily completed, as in-
deed they admitted of little choice. The Master
surrendered his apartment for the use of Miss Ash-
ton, and jNIysie, (once a person of consequence,)
dressed in a black satin gown which had belonged
of yore to the Master's grandmother, and had figured
in the court-balls of Henrietta Maria, went to attend
her as lady's maid. He next enquired after Buck-
law, and understanding he was at the change-house
with the huntsmen and some companions, he de-
sired Caleb to call there, and acquaint him how he
was circumstanced at "Wolf's Crag — to intimate to
him that it would be most convenient if he could
find a bed in the hamlet, as the elder guest must
necessarily be quartered in the secret chamber, the
only spare bedroom which could be made fit to
receive him. The Master saw no hardship in pass-

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 165

ing the night by the hall-fire, wrapt in his campaign
cloak ; and to Scottish domestics of the day, even
of the highest rank, nay, to young men of family
or fashion, on any pinch, clean straw, or a dry hay-
loft, was always held good night-quarters.

For the rest, Lockhard had his master's orders
to bring some venison from the inn, and Caleb was
to trust to his wits for the honour of his family.
The Master, indeed, a second time held out his
purse ; but, as it was in sight of the strange servant,
the butler thought himself obliged to decline what
his fingers itched to clutch. " Couldna he hae
slippit it gently into my hand ? " said Caleb — " but
his honour will never learn how to bear himsell in
siccan cases."

Mysie, in the meantime, according to a uniform
custom in remote places in Scotland, offered the
strangers the produce of her little dairy, " while
better meat was getting ready." And according to
another custom, not yet wholly in desuetu-de, as the
storm was now drifting off to leeward, the Master
carried the Keeper to the top of his highest tower
to admire a wide and waste extent of view, and to
" weary for his dinner."

CHAPTER XII.

" Now dame," quoth he, " Je vuus (lis sans doute,

Had I nought of a capon but the liver,

And of your white bread nought but a shiver,

And after that a roasted pigge's head,

(But I ne wold for me no beast were dead,)

Then had I with you homely sufferauuce."

Chaucek, iSumner's Tale.

It was not without some secret misgivings that
Caleb set out upon his exploratory expedition. In
fact, it was attended with a treble difficulty. He
dared not tell his master the offence which he had
that morning given to Bucklaw (just for the honour
of the family) — he dared not acknowledge he had
been too hasty in refusing the purse — and, thirdly,
he was somewhat apprehensive of unpleasant con-
sequences upon his meeting Hayston under the im-
pression of an affront, and probably by this time
under the influence also of no small quantity of
brandy.

Caleb, to do him justice, was as bold as any lion
where the honour of the family of Eavenswood was
concerned ; but his was that considerate valour
which does not delight in unnecessary risks. This,
however, was a secondary consideration ; the main
point was to veil the indigence of the house-keeping
at the castle, and to make good his vaunt of the
cheer which his resources could procure, without
Lockhard's assistance, and without supplies from his
master. This was as prime a point of honour with

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 167

him, as with the generous elephant with whom we
have already compared him, who, being over-tasked,
broke his skull through the desperate exertions
which he made to discharge his duty, when he
perceived they were bringing up another to his
assistance.

The village which they now approached had fre-
quently afforded the distressed butler resources
upon similar emergencies ; but his relations with it
had been of late much altered.

It was a little hamlet which straggled along the
side of a creek formed by the discharge of a small
brook into the sea, and was hidden from the castle,
to which it had been in former times an appendage,
by the intervention of the shoulder of a hill form-
ing a projecting headland. It was called Wolf's-
hope, {i. e. Wolf's Haven,) and the few inhabitants
gained a precarious subsistence by manning two or
three fishing-boats in the herring season, and smug-
gling gin and brandy during the winter months.
They paid a kind of hereditary respect to the Lords
of Eavenswood ; but, in the difficulties of the family,
most of the inhabitants of Wolf's-hope had con-
trived to get feu-rights ^ to their little possessions,
their huts, kail-yards, and rights of commonty, so
that they were emancipated from the chains of feu-
dal dependence, and free from the various exactions
with which, under every possible pretext, or with-
out any pretext at all, the Scottish landlords of the
period, themselves in great poverty, were wont to
harass their still poorer tenants at will. They
might be, on the whole, termed independent, a cir-

^ That is, absolute rie^hts of property for the payment of a
sum annually, wliich is usually a trifle in such cases as are alluded
to in the text.

168 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

cumstance peculiarly galling to Caleb, who had been
wont to exercise over them the same sweeping
authorit}" in levying contributions which was exer-
cised in former times in England, when " the royal
purveyors, sallying forth from under the Gothic
portcullis to purchase provisions with power and
prerogative, instead of money, brought home the
plunder of an hundred markets, and all that could
be seized from a flying and hiding country, and
deposited their spoil in an hundred caverns." ^

Caleb loved the memory and resented the down-
fall of that authority, which mimicked, on a petty
scale, the grand contributions exacted by the feu-
dal sovereigns. And as he fondly flattered himself
that the awful rule and right supremacy which
assigned to the Barons of Ravenswood the first and
most effective interest in all productions of nature
within five miles of their castle, only slumbered, and
was not departed for ever, he used every now and
then to give the recollection of the inhabitants a
little jog by some petty exaction. These were at
first submitted to, with more or less readiness, by
the inhabitants of the hamlet ; for they had been
so long used to consider the wants of the Baron
and his family as having a title to be preferred to
their own, that their actual independence did not
convey to them an immediate sense of freedom.
They resembled a man that has been long fettered,
who, even at liberty, feels, in imagination, the grasp
of the handcuffs still binding his wrists. But the
exercise of freedom is quickly followed with the
natural consciousness of its immunities, as the en-
larged prisoner, by the free use of his limbs, soon

' Burke's Speech ou Ecouomical Reform — Works, vol. iii.
p. 250.

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 169

dispels the cramped feeling they had acquired when
bound.

The inhabitants of Wolf's-hope began to grumble,
to resist, and at length positively to refuse compli-
ance with the exactions of Caleb Balderstone.
It was in vain he reminded them, that when the
eleventh Lord Ravenswood, called the Skipper,
from his delight in naval matters, had encouraged
the trade of their port by building the pier, (a bul-
wark of stones rudely piled together,; which pro-
tected the tishiug-boats from the weather, it had
been matter of understanding, that he was to have
the first stone of butter after the calving of every
cow within the barony, and the first egg, thence
called the Monday's egg, laid by every hen on every
Monday in the year.

The feuars heard and scratched their heads,
coughed, sneezed, and being pressed for answer, re-
joined with one voice, " They could not say ; " — the
universal refuge of a Scottish peasant, when pressed
to admit a claim which his conscience owns, or perhaps
his feelings, and his interest inclines him to deny.

Caleb, however, furnished the notables of Wolf's-
hope with a note of the requisition of butter and
eggs, which he claimed as arrears of the aforesaid
subsidy, or kindly aid, payable as above mentioned ;
and having intimated that he would not be averse
to compound the same for goods or money, if
it was inconvenient to them to pay in kind, left
them, as he hoped, to debate the mode of assessing
themselves for that purpose. On the contrary, they
met with a determined purpose of resisting the
exaction, and were only undecided as to the mode
of grounding their opposition, when the cooper, a
very important person on a fishing station, and one

I70 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

of the Conscript Fathers of the village, observed,
" That their hens had caickled mony a day for the
Lords of Eavenswood, and it was time they suld
caickle for those that gave them roosts and barley."
An unanimous grin intimated the assent of the
assembly. "And," continued the orator, "if it's
your wull, I'll just tak a step as far as Dunse for
Davie Dingwall the writer, that's come frae the
Xorth to settle amang us, and he'll pit this job to
rights, I'se warrant him."

A day was accordingly fixed for holding a grand
palaver at Wolf's-hope on the subject of Caleb's
requisitions, and he was invited to attend at the
hamlet for that purpose.

He went with open hands and empty stomach,
trusting to fill the one on his master's account, and
the other on his own score, at the expense of the
feuars of Wolf's-hope. But, death to his hopes ! as
he entered the eastern end of the straggling village,
the awful form of Davie Dingwall, a sly, dry, hard-
fisted, shrewd country attorney, who had already
acted against the family of Eavenswood, and was a
principal agent of Sir William Ashton, trotted in
at the western extremity, bestriding a leathern port-
manteau stuffed with the feu-charters of the ham-
let, and hoping he had not kept Mr. Balderstone
waiting, "as he was instructed and fully empowered
to pay or receive, compound or compensate, and,
in fine, to age ^ as accords, respecting all mutual
and unsettled claims whatsoever, belonging or com-
petent to the Honourable Edgar Eavenswood, com-
monly called the Master of Eavenswood "

" The Right Honourable Edgar Lord Eavenswood"
said Caleb, with great emphasis ; for, though con-

^ To act as naav l>e iiece.ssarv and legal, a Scottish law phrase.

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 171

scious he had little chance of advantage in the con-
flict to ensue, he was resolved not to sacrifice one
jot of honour.

" Lord Eavenswood, then," said the man of busi-
ness ; " we shall not quarrel with you about titles
of courtesy — commonly called Lord Eavenswood,
or Master of Eavenswood, heritable proprietor of
the lands and barony of Wolfs Crag, on the one
part, and to John Whitefish and others, feuars in
the town of Wolf's-hope, within the barony afore-
said, on the other part."

Caleb was conscious, from sad experience, that
he would wage a very different strife with this mer-
cenary champion, than with the individual feuars
themselves, upon whose old recollections, predilec-
tions, and habits of thinking, he might have wrought
by an hundred indirect arguments, to which their
deputy-representative was totally insensible. The
issue of the debate proved the reality of his appre-
hensions. It was in vain he strained his eloquence
and ingenuity, and collected into one mass all argu-
ments arising from antique custom and hereditary
respect, from the good deeds done by the Lord of
Ravenswood to the community of Wolf's-hope in
former days, and from what might be expected from
them in future. The writer stuck to the contents
of his feu-charters — he could not see it — 'twas not
in the bond. And when Caleb, determined to try
what a little spirit would do, deprecated the con-
sequences of Lord Eavenswood's withdrawing his
protection from the burgh, and even hinted at his
using active measures of resentment, the man of
law sneered in his face.

" His clients," he said, " had determined to do
the best they could for their own town, and he

172 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

thought Lord Eavenswood, since he was a lord,
might have enough to do to look after his own
castle. As to any threats of stouthrief oppression,
by rule of thumb, or via facti, as the law termed it,
he would have Mr. Balderstone recollect, that new
times were not as old times — that they lived on the
south of the Forth, and far from the Highlands —
that his clients thought they were able to protect
themselves ; but should they find themselves mis-
taken, they w^ould apply to the government for the
protection of a corporal and four red-coats, who,"
said Mr. Dingwall, with a grin, " would be perfectly
able to secure them against Lord Eavenswood, and
all that he or his followers could do by the strong
hand."

If Caleb could have concentrated all the light-
nings of aristocracy in his eye, to have struck dead
this contemner of allegiance and privilege, he would
have launched them at his head, without respect to
the consequences. As it was, he was compelled to
turn his course backward to the castle ; and there he
remained for full half a day invisible and inaccessi-
ble even to Mysie, sequestered in his own ])eculiar
dungeon, where he sat burnishing a single pewter-
plate, and whistling Maggy Lauder six hours with-
out intermission.

The issue of this unfortunate requisition had shut
against Caleb all resources which could be derived
from Wolf's-hope and its purlieus, the El Dorado,
or Peru, from which, in all former cases of exi-
gence, he had been able to extract some assistance.
He had, indeed, in a manner vowed that the deil
should have him, if ever he put the print of his foot
within its causeway again. He had hitherto kept
his word ; and, strange to tell, this secession had,

THE BRIDE OE LAMMERMOOR. 173

as he intended, in some degree, the effect of a
punishment upon the refractory feuars. Mr. Bal-
derstone had been a person in their eyes connected
with a superior order of beings, whose presence
used to grace their little festivities, whose advice
they found useful on many occasions, and whose
communications gave a sort of credit to their vil-
lage. The place, they acknowledged, " didna look
as it used to do, and should do, since Mr. Caleb
keepit the castle sae closely — but doubtless, touch-
ing the eggs and butter, it was a most unreasonable
demand, as Mr. Dingwall had justly made manifest."

Thus stood matters betwixt the parties, when
the old butler, though it was gall and wormwood
to him, found himself obliged either to acknow-
ledge before a strange man of quality, and, what
was much worse, before that stranger's servant, the
total inability of Wolf's Crag to produce a dinner,
or he must trust to the compassion of the feuars
of Wolf's-hope. It was a dreadful degradation,
but necessity was equally imperious and lawless.
With these feelings he entered the street of the
village.

Willing to shake himself from his companion as
soon as possible, he directed Mr. Lockhard to Luckie
Sma'trash's change-house, where a din, proceeding
from the revels of Bucklaw, Craigengelt, and their
party, sounded half-way down the street, while the
red glare from the window overpowered the grey
twilight which was now settling down, and glim-
mered against a parcel of old tubs, kegs, and barrels,
piled up in the cooper's yard, on the other side of
the way.

" If you, Mr. Lockhard," said the old butler to
his companion, "will be pleased to step to the

174 TALES or MY LANDLORD.

change-house where that light comes from, and
where, as I judge, they are now singing ' Cauld
Kail in Aberdeen,' ye may do your master's errand
about the venison, and I will do mine about Buck-
law's bed, as I return frae getting the rest of the vix-
ers. — It's no that the venison is actually needfu',"
he added, detaining his colleague by the button,
" to make up the dinner ; but, as a compliment to
the hunters, ye ken — and, Mr. Lockhard — if they
offer ye a drink o' yill, or a cup o' wine, or a glass
o' brandy, ye'll be a wise man to take it, in case the
thunner should hae soured ours at the castle, —
whilk is ower muckle to be dreaded."

He then permitted Lockhard to depart ; and with
foot heavy as lead, and yet far lighter than his
heart, stepped on through the unequal street of the
straggling village, meditating on whom he ought to
make his first attack. It was necessary he should
find some one, with whom old acknowledged great-
ness should weigh more than recent independence,
and to whom his application might appear an act
of high dignity, relenting at once and soothing.
But he could not recollect an inhabitant of a mind
so constructed. " Our kail is like to be cauld
eneugh too," he reflected, as the chorus of Cauld
Kail in Aberdeen again reached his ears. The
minister — he had got his presentation from the late
lord, but they had quarrelled about tiends ; — the
brewster's wife — she had trusted long — and the
bill was aye scored up — and unless the dignity of
the family should actually require it, it would be a
sin to distress a widow woman. Xone was so able
— but, on the other hand, none was likely to be less
willing, to stand his friend upon the present occa-
sion, than Gibbie Girder, the man of tubs and barrels

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 175

already mentioned, who had headed the insurrection
in the matter of the egg and butter subsidy. — " But
a' comes 0' taking folk on the right side, I trow,"
quoth Caleb to himself ; " and I had ance the ill hap
to say he was but a Johnny Newcome in our town,
and the carle bore the family an ill-will ever since.
But he married a bonny young quean, Jean Light-
body, auld Lightbody's daughter, him that was in
the steading of Loup-the-Dyke, — and auld Light-
body was married himsell to Marion, that was about
my lady in the family forty years syne — I hae had
mony a day's daffing wi' Jean's mither, and they
say she bides on wi' them — the carle has Jacobuses
and Georgiuses baith, an ane could get at them —
and sure I am, it's doing him an honour him or his
never deserved at our hand, the ungracious sumph ;
and if he loses by us a'thegither, he is e'en cheap
o't, he can spare it brawly."

Shaking off irresolution, therefore, and turning at
once upon his heel, Caleb walked hastily back to
the cooper's house, lifted the latch without cere-
mony, and, in a moment, found himself behind the
kalian, or partition, from which position he could,
himself unseen, reconnoitre the interior of the but,
or kitchen apartment, of the mansion.

Reverse of the sad menage at the Castle of Wolf's
Crag, a bickering fire roared up the cooper's chim-
ney. His wife on the one side, in her pearlings and
pudding sleeves, put the last finishing touch to her
holiday's apparel, while she contemplated a very
handsome and good-humoured face in a broken
mirror, raised upon the link (the shelves on which
the plates are disposed) for her special accommoda-
tion. Her mother, old Luckie Loup-the-Dyke, " a
canty carline " as was within twenty railes of her.

176 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

according to the unanimous report of the cummers,
or gossips, sat by the fire in the full glory of a gro-
gram gown, lammer beads, and a clean cockernony,
whiffing a snug pipe of tobacco, and superintending
the affairs of the kitchen. For — sight more inter-
esting to the anxious heart and craving entrails of
the desponding Seneschal, than either buxom dame
or canty cummer — there bubbled on the aforesaid
bickering fire, a huge pot, or rather cauldron, steam-
ing with beef and brewis ; while before it revolved
two spits, turned each by one of the cooper's ap-
prentices, seated in the opposite corners of the chim-
ney ; the one loaded with a quarter of mutton, while
the other was graced with a fat goose and a brace
of wild ducks. The sight and scent of such a land
of plenty almost wholly overcame the drooping
spirits of Caleb. He turned, for a moment's space,
to reconnoitre the hen, or parlour end of the house,
and there saw a sight scarce less affecting to his
feelings ; — a large round table, covered for ten or
twelve persons, decored (according to his own fa-
vourite term) with napery as white as snow ; grand
flagons of pewter, intermixed with one or two silver
cups, containing, as was probable, something worthy
the brilliancy of their outward appearance ; clean
trenchers, cutty spoons, knives and forks, sharp,
burnished, and prompt for action, which lay all dis-
played as for an especial festival.

" The devil's in the pedling tub-coopering carle ! "
miittered Caleb, in all the envy of astonishment;
" it's a shame to see the like o' them gusting theii'
gabs at sic a rate. But if some o' that gude cheer
does not find it's way to Wolf's Crag this night, my
name is not Caleb Balderstone."

So resolving, he entered the apartment, and, in all

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 177

courteous greeting, saluted both the mother and the
daughter. Wolf's Crag was the court of the barony,
Caleb prime minister at Wolf's Crag ; and it has ever
been remarked, that though the masculine subject
who pays the taxes sometimes growls at the court-
iers by whom they are imposed, the said courtiers con-
tinue, nevertheless, welcome to the fair sex, to whom
they furnish the newest small-talk and the earliest
fashions. Both the dames were, therefore, at once
about old Caleb's neck, setting up their throats to-
gether by way of welcome.

" Ay, sirs, Mr. Balderstone, and is this you ? — A
sight of you is gude for sair een — sit down — sit
down — the gudeman will be blithe to see you — ye
nar saw him sae cadgy in your life ; but we are to
christen our bit wean the night, as ye will hae heard,
and doubtless ye will stay and see the ordinance. —
We hae killed a wether, and ane 0' our lads has been
out wi' his gun at the moss — ye used to like wild-
fowl.'

" Na — na — gudewife," said Caleb, " I just kee-
kit in to wish ye joy, and I wad be glad to hae

spoken wi' the gudeman, but " moving, as if to

go away.

" The ne'er a fit ye's gang," said the elder dame,
laughing and holding him fast, with a freedom which
belonged to their old acquaintance ; " wha kens what
ill it may bring to the bairn, if ye owerlook it in
that gate ? "

" But I'm in a preceese hurry, gudewife," said the
butler, suffering himself to be dragged to a seat
without much resistance ; " and as to eating " — for
he observed the mistress of the dwelling bustling
about to place a trencher for him — " as for eating
— Jack-a-day, we are just killed up yonder wi' eat-
13

r78 TALES OF MY LAI^DLORD.

ing frae morning to night — its shamefu' epicurisir.
but that's what we hae gotten frae the English pock
puddings."

" Hout — never mind the English pock-puddings,
said Luckie Lightbody ; " try our puddings, Mr
Balderstone — there is black pudding and white-
hass — try whilk ye like best."

" Baith gude — baith excellent — canna be better ;
but the very smell is eneugh for me that hae dined
sae lately (the faithful wretch had fasted since day-
break.) But I wadna affront your house wifeskep,gude-
wife; and, with your permission, I'se e'en pit them
in my napkin, and eat them to my supper at e'en,
for I am wearied of Mysie's pastry and nonsense —
ye ken landward dainties aye pleased me best,
Marion — and landward lasses too — (looking at the
cooper's wife) — Ne'er a Ijit but she looks far better
than when she married Gilbert, and then she was the
bonniest lass in our parochine and the neest till't ~
But gawsie cow, goodly calf."

The women smiled at the compliment each to
herself, and they smiled again to each other as Caleb
wrapt up the puddings in a towel which he had
brought with him, as a dragoon carries his foraging
bag to receive what may fall in his way.

" And what news at the castle ? " quo' the gude-
wife.

" News ? — the bravest news ye ever heard — the
Lord Keeper's up yonder wi' his fair daughter, just
ready to fling her at my lord's head, if he winna tak
her out o' his arms ; and I'se warrant he'll stitch our
auld lands of Ravens wood to her petticoat tail."

" Eh ' sirs — ay ! — and will he hae her ? — and is
slie weel-favoured ? — and what's the colour o' her
hair ? — and does she wear a habit or a raillv ? " were

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 179

the questions which the females showered upon the
butler.

" Hout tout ! — it wad tak a man a day to an-
swer a' your questions, and I hae hardly a minute.
Where's the gudeman ? "

"Awa to fetch the minister," said Mrs. Girder,
" precious Mr. Peter Bide-the-Bent, frae the Moss-
head — the honest man has the rheumatism wi' ly-
ing in the hills in the persecution."

"Ay ! — a whig and a mountain-man — nae less ? "
said Caleb, with a peevishness he could not sup-
press ; " I hae seen the day, Luckie, when worthy
Mr. Cuffcushion and the service-book (?) would hae
served your turn, (to the elder dame,) or ony hon-
est woman in like circumstances."

" And that's true too," said Mrs. Lightbody, " but
what can a body do ? — Jean maun baith sing her
psalms and busk her cockernony the gate the gude-
man likes, and nae ither gate ; for he's maister and
mair at hame, I can tell ye, Mr. Balderstone."

" Ay, ay, and does he guide the gear too ? " said
Caleb, to whose projects masculine rule boded little
good.

" Ilka penny on't — but he'll dress her as dink as
a daisy, as ye see — sae she has little reason to com-
plain — where there's ane better aff there's ten
waur."

" Aweel, gudewife," said Caleb, crest-fallen, but
not beaten off, " that wasna the way ye guided your
gudeman ; but ilka land has its ain lauch. I maun be
ganging — I just wanted to round in the gudeman's
lug, that I heard them say up by yonder, that Peter
Puncheon that was cooper to the Queen's stores at
the Timmer Jjurse at Leith, is dead — sae I thought
that maybe a word frae my lord to the Lord

i8o TALES or MY LANDLORD.

Keeper might hae served Gilbert; but since he's
frae hame "

" 0, but ye maun stay his hame-coming," said the
dame, " I aye telled the gudeman ye meant weel to
him ; but he taks the tout at every bit lippening
word."

"Aweel, I'll stay the last minute I can."

"And so," said the handsome young spouse of
Mr. Girder, " ye think this Miss Ashton is weel-fa-
voured ? — troth, and sae should she, to set up for our
young lord, with a face, and a hand, and a seat on his
horse, that might become a king's son — d'ye ken that
he aye glowers up at my window, Mr. Balderstone,
when he chaunces to ride thro' the town, sae I hae a
right to ken what like he is, as weel as ony body."

" I ken that brawly," said Caleb, " for I hae heard
his lordship say the cooper's wife had the blackest
ee in the barony ; and I said, Weel may that be, my
lord, for it was her mither's afore her, as I ken to
my cost — Eh, Marion ? Ha, ha, ha ' — Ah ! these
were merry days !"

" Hout awa, auld carle," said the old dame, " to
speak sic daffing to young folk. — But, Jean — fie,
woman, dinna ye hear the bairn greet ? I'se war-
rant it's that dreary weid ^ has come ower't again."

Up got mother and grandmother, and scoured
away, jostling each other as they ran, into some
remote corner of the tenement, where the young
hero of the evening was deposited. When Caleb saw
the coast fairly clear, he took an invigorating pinch
of snuff, to sharpen and confirm his resolution.

Cauld be my cast, thought he, if either Bide-the-
Bent or Girder taste that broche of wild-fowl this

1 Weid, a feverish cold ; a disorder incident to infants and to
females, is so called.

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. i8i

evening ; and then addressing the eldest turnspit, a
boy of about eleven years old, and putting a penny
into his hand, he said, "Here is twal pennies,^ my
man ; carry that ower to Mrs. Sma'trash, and bid
her fill my mill wi' suishing, and I'll turn the broche
for ye in the meantime — and she will gie ye a ginge-
bread snap for your pains."

No sooner was the elder boy departed on this mis-
sion, than Caleb, looking the remaining turnspit
gravely and steadily in the face, removed from the
fire the spit bearing the wild-fowl of which he had
undertaken the charge, clapped his hat on his head,
and fairly marched off with it. He stopped at the
door of the change-house only to say, in a few brief
words, that Mr. Hayston of Bucklaw was not to
expect a bed that evening in the castle.

If this message was too briefly delivered by Caleb,
it became absolute rudeness when conveyed through
the medium of a suburb landlady ; and Bucklaw was,
as a more calm and temperate man might have been,
highly incensed. Captain Craigengelt proposed, with
the unanimous applause of all present, that they
should course the old fox (meaning Caleb) ere he
got to cover, and toss him in a blanket. But Lock-
hard intimated to his master's servants, and those
of Lord Bittlebrains, in a tone of autliority, that
the slightest impertinence to the Master of Eavens-
wood's domestic would give Sir William Ashton
the highest offence. And having so said, in a man-
ner sufficient to prevent any aggression on their
part, he left the public-house, taking along with
him two servants loaded with such provisions as he
had been able to procure, and overtook Caleb just
when he had cleared the village.

^ Monetae Scoticae, scilicet.

CHAPTEE XIII.

Should I take aught of you ? — 'tis true I begged now_.
And what is worse thau that, I stole a kindness ;
And, what is worst of all, I lost my way in't.

Wit icithout Money.

The face of the little boy, sole witness of Caleb's
infringement upon the laws at once of property and
hospitality, would have made a good picture. He
sat motionless, as if he had witnessed some of the
spectral appearances which he had heard told of in
a winter's evening ; and as he forgot his own duty,
and allowed his spit to stand still, he added to the
misfortunes of the evening, by suffering the mutton
to burn as black as a coal. He was first recalled
from his trance of astonishment by a hearty cufif,
administered by Dame Lightbody, who (in what-
ever other respects she might conform to her name)
was a woman strong of person, and expert in the
use of her hands, as some say her deceased husband
had known to his cost.

" What gar'd ye let the roast burn, ye ill-cleckit
gude-for-nought ? "

" I dinna ken," said the boy.

" And where's that ill-deedy gett, Giles ? "

" I dinna ken," blubbered the astonished declarant.

"And where's Mr. Balderstone ? — and abune a',
and in the name of council and kirk -session, that I
suld say sae, where's the broche wi' the wild-fowl ? "

As Mrs. Girder here entered, and joined her moth-
er's exclamations, screaming into one ear while the

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 183

old lady deafened the other, they succeeded in so
utterly confounding the unhappy urchin, that he
could not for some time tell his story at all, and it
was only when the elder boy re^.urned, that the
truth began to dawn on their mi ads.

" "VVeel, sirs ! " said Mrs. Lightbody, " wha wad
hae thought o' Caleb Balderstone playing an auld
acquaintance sic a pliskie !"

" 0, weary on him ! " said the spouse of Mr. Gir-
der; "and what am I to say to the gudeman ? —
he'll brain me, if there wasna anither woman in a'
Wolf's-hope."

"Hout tout, silly quean," said the mother; "na,
na — it's come to muckle, but it's no come to that
neither ; for an he brain you he maun brain me, and
I have gar'd his betters stand back — hands aff is
fair play — we maunna heed a bit tlyting."

The tramp of horses now announced the arrival
of the cooper, with the minister. They had no
sooner dismounted than they made for the kitchen
fire, for the evening was cool after the thunder
storm, and the woods wet and dirty. The young
gudewife, strong in the charms of her Sunday gown
and biggonets, threw herself in the way of receiving
the first attack, while her mother, like the veteran
division of the Eoman legion, remained in the rear,
ready to support her in case of necessity. Both
hoped to protract the discovery of what had hap-
pened — the mother, by interposing her bustling
person betwixt Mr. Girder and the fire, and the
daughter, by the extreme cordiality with which she
received the minister and her husband, and the
anxious fears which she expressed lest they should
have "gotten cauld."

" Cauld ?" quoth the husband surlily — for he was

1 84 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

not of that class of lords and masters whose wives
are viceroys over them — " we'll be cauld eneugh, I
think, if ye dinna let us into the fire."

And so saying, he burst his way through both
lines of defence ; and, as he had a careful eye over
his property of every kind, he perceived at one
glance the absence of the spit with its savoury bur-
den^ " What the deil, woman "

" Fie for shame ! " exclaimed both the women ;
" and before Mr. Bide-the-Bent ! "

" I stand reproved," said the cooper ; " but "

" The taking in our mouths the name of the
great enemy of our souls," said Mr. Bide-the-
Bent

" I stand reproved," said the cooper.

" Is an exposing ourselves to his temptations,"
continued the reverend monitor, " and an inviting,
or, in some sort, a compelling, of him to lay aside
his other trafficking with unhappy persons, and wait
upon those in whose speech his name is frequent."

"Weel, weel, Mr. Bide-the-Bent, can a man do
mair than stand reproved ? " said the cooper ; " but
just let me ask the women what for they hae dished
the wild-fowl before we came."

" They arena dished, Gilbert," said his wife ; " but
— but an accident "

" What accident ? " said Girder, with flashing
eyes — " Nae ill come ower them, I trust ? Uh ? "

His wife, who stood much in awe of him, durst
not reply, but her mother bustled up to her support,
with arms disposed as if they were about to be
a-kimbo at the next reply. — "I gied them to an
acquaintance of mine, Gibbie Girder ; and what
about it now ? "

Her excess of assurance struck Girder mute for

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 185

an instant. — "And ye gied the wild- fowl, the best
end of our christening dinner, to a friend of yours,
ye auld rudas ! And what might his name be, I
pray ye ? "

" Just worthy Mr. Caleb Balderstone, frae Wolf's
Crag," answered Marion, prompt and prepared for
battle.

Girder's wrath foamed over all restraint. If there
was a circumstance which could have added to the
resentment he felt, it was, that this extravagant
donation had been made in favour of our friend
Caleb, towards whom, for reasons to which the
reader is no stranger, he nourished a decided resent-
ment. He raised his riding-wand against the elder
matron, but she stood firm, collected in herself, and
undauntedly brandished the iron ladle with which
she had just been Jlambing {Anglice, basting) the
roast of mutton. Her weapon was certainly the
better, and her arm not the weakest of the two ;
so that Gilbeit thought it safest to turn short off
upon his wife, who had by this time hatched a sort
of hysterical whine, which greatly moved the minis-
ter, who was in fact as simple and kind-hearted a
creature as ever breathed. — " And you, ye thowless
jadd, to sit still and see my substance disponed upon
to an idle, drunken, reprobate, worm-eaten, serving
man, just because he kittles the lugs 0' a silly auld
wife wi' useless clavers, and every twa words a lee ?
— I'll gar you as gude "

Here the minister interposed, both by voice and
action, while Dame Lightbody threw herself in
front of her daughter, and flourished her ladle.

" Am I no to chastise my ain wife ? " exclaimed
the cooper, very indignantly.

" Ye may chastise your ain wife if ye like,"

1 86 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

answered Dame Lightbody ; " but ye shall never
lay finger on my daughter, and that ye may found
upon."

" For shame, Mr. Girder ! " said the clergyman ;
" this is what I little expected to have seen of you,
that you suld give rein to your sinful passions
against your nearest and your dearest ; and this
night too, when ye are called to the most solemn
duty of a Christian parent — and a' for what ? for a
redundancy of creature-comforts, as worthless as
they are unneedful."

" Worthless ! " exclaimed the cooper ; "a better
guse never walkit on stubble ; twa finer dentier
wild-ducks never wat a feather."

" Be it sae, neighbour," rejoined the minister ;
" but see what superfluities are yet revolving before
your fire. I have seen the day when ten of the
bannocks which stand upon that board would have
been an acceptable dainty to as many men, that
were starving on hills and bogs, and in caves of the
earth, for the Gospel's sake."

" And that's what vexes me maist of a'," said the
cooper, anxious to get some one to sympathize with
his not altogether causeless anger ; " an the quean
had gien it to ony suffering sant, or to ony body
ava but that reaving, lying, oppressing tory villain,
that rade in the wicked troop of militia wlien it was
commanded out against the sants at Bothwell Brigg
by the auld tyrant Allan Eavenswood, that is gane
to his place, I wad the less hae minded it. But
to gie the principal part o' the feast to the like o'
him ! "

" Aweel, Gilbert," said the minister, " and dinna
ye see a high judgment in this ? — The seed of the
righteous are not seen begging their bread — think

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOK 187

of the son of a powerful oppressor being brought
to the pass of supporting his household from your
fulness."

" And, besides," said the wife, " it wasua for
Lord Eavenswood neither, an he wad hear but a
body speak — it was to help to entertain the Lord
Keeper, as they ca' him, that's up yonder at Wolf's
Crag."

" Sir William Ashton at Wolf's Crag ! " ejacu-
lated the astonished man of hoops and staves.

" And hand and glove wi' Lord Eavenswood,"
added Dame Lightbody.

" Doited idiot ! — that auld clavering sneck-drawer
wad gar ye trow the moon is made of green cheese.
The Lord Keeper and Eavenswood ! they are cat
and dog, hare and hound."

" I tell ye thev are man and wife, and gree bet-
ter than some others that are sae," retorted the
mother-in-law ; " forby, Peter Puncheon, that's
cooper to the Queen's stores, is dead, and the place
is to fill, and "

" Od guide us, wull ye hand your skirling
tongues ! " said Girder, — for we are to remark, that
this explanation was given like a catch for two
voices, the younger dame, much encouraged by
the turn of the debate, taking up, and repeating
in a higher tone, the words as fast as they were
uttered by her mother.

" The gudewife says naething but what's true,
maister," said Girder's foreman, who had come in
during the fray. " I saw the Lord Keeper's
servants drinking and driving ower at Luckie
Sma' trash's, ower by yonder."

" And is their maister up at Wolf's Crag ? " said
Girder.

1 88 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

"Ay, troth is he," replied his man of confidence.

" And friends wi' Eavenswood ? "

" It's like sae," answered the foreman, " since he
is putting up 1 wi' him."

" And Peter Puncheon's dead ? "

" Ay, ay — Puncheon has leaked out at last, the
auld carle," said the foreman ; " mony a dribble o'
brandy has gaen through him in his day. — But as
for the broche and the wild-fowl, the saddle's no aff
your mare yet, maister, and I could follow and bring
it back, for Mr. Balderstone's no far aff the town
yet."

" Do sae. Will — and come here — I'll tell ye
what to do when ye owertake him."

He relieved the females of his presence, and gave
Will his private instructions.

" A bonny-like thing," said the mother-in-law,
as the cooper re-entered the apartment, " to send
the innocent lad after an armed man, when ye ken
Mr. Balderstone aye we^rs a rapier, and whiles a
dirk into the bargain."

" I trust," said the minister, " ye have reflected
weel on what ye have done, lest you should minis-
ter cause of strife, of which it is my duty to say,
he who affordeth matter, albeit he himself striketh
not, is in no manner guiltless."

" Never fash your beard, Mr. Bide-the-Bent,"
replied Girder ; " ane canna get their breath out
here between wives and ministers — I ken best how
to turn my ain cake. — Jean, serve up the dinner,
and nae mair about it."

Nor did he again allude to the deficiency in the
■ course of the evening.

Meantime, the foreman, mounted on his master's

1 Taking uj) Iiis abode.

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 189

steed, and charged with his special orders, pricked
swiftly forth in pursuit of the marauder Caleb.
That personage, it may be imagined, did not linger
by the way. He intermitted even his dearly-be-
loved chatter, for the purpose of making more haste
— only assuring Mr. Lockhard that he had made
the purveyor's wife give the wild-fowl a few turns
before the fire, in case that Alysie, who had been
so much alarmed by the thunder, should not have
her kitchen-grate in full splendour. Meanwhile,
alleging the necessity of being at Wolf's Crag as
soon as possible, he pushed on so fast that his com-
panions could scarce keep up with him. He began
already to think he was safe from pursuit, having
gained the summit of the swelling eminence which
divides Wolf's Crag from the village, when he
heard the distant tread of a horse, and a voice
which shouted at intervals, " Mr. Caleb — Mr. Bal-
derstone — ]\Ir. Caleb Balderstone — hollo — bide a
wee ! "

Caleb, it may be well believed, was in no hurry
to acknowledge the summons. First, he would not
hear it, and faced his companions down, that it was
the echo of the wind ; then he said it was not worth
stopping for ; and at length, halting reluctantly, as
the figure of the horseman appeared through the
shades of the evening, he bent up his whole soul to
the task of defending his prey, threw himself into
an attitude of dignity, advanced the spit, which in
his grasp might with its burden seem both spear
and shield, and firmly resolved to die rather than
surrender it.

What was his astonishment, when the cooper's
foreman, riding up and addressing him with respect,
told him, " his master was very sorry be was ab-

I90 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

sent when he came to his dwelling, and grieved that
he could not tarry the christening dinner ; and that
ho had taen the freedom to send a sma' rundlet of
sack, and ane anker of brandy, as he understood
there were guests at the castle, and that they were
short of preparation."

I have heard somewhere a story of an elderly
gentleman, who was pursued by a bear that had
gotten loose from its muzzle, until completely ex-
hausted. In a fit of desperation, he faced round
upon Bruin and lifted his cane; at the sight of
which the instinct of discipline prevailed, and the
animal, instead of tearing him to pieces, rose up
upon his hind-legs, and instantly began to shuffle a
saraband. Not less than the joyful surprise of the
senior, who had supposed himself in the extremity
of peril from which he was thus unexpectedly re-
lieved, was that of our excellent friend Caleb, when
he found the pursuer intended to add to his prize,
instead of bereaving him of it. He recovered his
latitude, however, instantly, so soon as the fore-
man, stooping from his nag, where he sate perched
betwixt the two barrels, whispered in his ear, — " If
ony thing about Peter Puncheon's place could be
airted their way, John Girder wad mak it better
to the Master of Ravenswood than a pair of new
gloves ; and that he wad be blithe to speak wi'
Maister Balderstone on that head, and he wad find
him as pliant as a hoop-willow in a' that he could
wish of him."

Caleb heard all this without rendering any an-
swer, except that of all great men from Louis XIV.
downwards, namely, "we will see about it;" and
then added aloud, for the edification of Mr. Lock-
hard, — " Your master has acted with becoming

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 191

civility aud attention in forwarding the liquors, and
I will not fail to represent it properly to my Lord
Eavenswood. And, my lad," he said, " you may
ride on to the castle, and if none of the servants are
returned, whilk is to be dreaded, as they make day
and night of it when they are out of sight, ye may
put them into the porter's lodge, whilk is on the
right hand of the great entry — the porter has got
leave to go to see his friends, sae ye will meet no
ane to steer ye."

The foreman, having received his orders, rode
on ; and having deposited the casks in the deserted
and ruinous porter's lodge, he returned unques-
tioned by any one. Having thus executed his mas-
ter's commission, and doffed his bonnet to Caleb and
his company as he repassed them in his way to
the village, he returned to have his share of the
christening festivity.^

1 Note I. — Raid of Caleb Balderstoue.

(^HAl^TEE XTV

As, to the Autumn breeze's bugle sound,

Various and vague the dry leaves dance their round ;

Or, from the garner-door, on ether borne,

The chaff flies devious from the wiunow'd corn;

So vague, so devious, at the breath of heaven,

From their tix'd aim are mortal counsels driv'n.

Anonyjigus.

We left Caleb Balderstone in the extremity of
triumph at the success of his various achievements
for the honour of the house of Eavenswood. When
he had mustered and marshalled his dishes of di-
vers kinds, a more royal provision had not been
seen in Wolf's Crag since the funeral feast of its
deceased lord. Great was the glory of the serving-
man, as he decored the old oaken table with a clean
cloth, and arranged upon it carbonaded venison
and roasted wild-fowl, with a glance, every now and
then, as if to upbraid the incredulity of his master
and his guests ; and with many a story, more or
less true, was Lockhard that evening regaled con-
cerning the ancient grandeur of Wolf's Crag, and
the sway of its Barons over the country in their
neighbourhood.

" A vassal scarce held a calf or a lamb his ain, till
he had first asked if the Lord of Eavenswood was
pleased to accept it ; and they were obliged to ask
the lord's consent before they married in these
days, and mony a merry tale they tell about that

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 193

right as weel as others. And although," said Caleb,
" these times are not like the gude aiild times, when
authority had its right, yet true it is, Mr. Lockhard,
and you yoursell may partly have remarked, that
we of the House of Eavenswood do our endeavour
in keeping up, by all just and lawful exertion of our
baronial authority, that due and fitting connexion
betwixt superior and vassal, whilk is in some dan-
ger of falling into desuetude, owing to the gen-
eral license and misrule of these present unhappy
times."

" Umph ! " said Mr. Lockhard ; " and if I may
enquire, Mr. Balderstone, pray do you find your
people at the village yonder amenable ? for I must
needs say, that at Eavenswood Castle, now pertain-
ing to my master, the Lord Keeper, ye have not left
behind ye the most compliant set of tenantry."

"Ah! but, Mr. Lockhard," replied Caleb, "ye
must consider there has been a change of hands, and
the auld lord might expect twa turns frae them,
when the new comer canna get ane. A dour and
fractious set they were, thae tenants of Eavens-
wood, and ill to live wi' when they dinna ken their
master — and if your master put them mad ance, the
whole country will not put them down."

" Troth," said Mr. Lockhard, " an sucli be the
case, I think the wisest thing for us a' wad be to
hammer up a match between your young lord and
our winsome young leddy up by there ; and Sir
William might just stitch your auld barony to her
gown-sleeve, and he wad sune cuitle ^ another out
0' somebody else, sic a laug head as he has."

Caleb shook his head. — "I wish," he said, " I
wish that may answer, Mr. Lockhard. There are
1 Cuitle may answer to tlie elegant modern phrase diddle.
)3

194 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

auld prophecies about this house I wad like ill to
see fulfilled wi' my auld een, that has seen evil
eneugh already."

" Pshaw ! never mind freits," said his brother
butler ; " if the young folk liked ane anither, they
wad make a winsome couple. But, to say truth,
there is a leddy sits in our hall-neuk maun have
her hand in that as weel as in every other job. But
there's no harm in drinking to their healths, and I
will fill Mrs. Mysie a cup of Mr. Girder's canary."

"While they thus enjoyed themselves in the
kitchen, the company in the hall were not less plea-
santly engaged. So soon as Ravenswood had de-
termined upon giving the Lord Keeper such hospi-
tality as he had to offer, he deemed it incumbent
on him to assume the open and courteous brow of
a well-pleased host. It has been often remarked,
that when a man commences by acting a character,
he frequently ends by adopting it in good earnest.
In the course of an hour or two, Eavenswood, to
his own surprise, found himself in the situation of
one who frankly does his best to entertain welcome
and honoured guests. How much of this change
in his disposition was to be ascribed to the beauty
and simplicity of Miss Ashton, to the readiness
with which she accommodated herself to the incon-
veniences of her situation — how much to the
smooth and plausible conversation of the Lord
Keeper, remarkably gifted with those words which
win the ear, must be left to the reader's ingenuity
to conjecture. But Ravenswood was insensible to
neither.

The Lord Keeper was a veteran statesman, well
acquainted with courts and cabinets, and intimate
with all the various turns of public affairs during

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 195

the last eventful years of the seventeenth century.
He could talk, from his own knowledge, of men
and events, in a way which failed not to win atten-
tion, and had the peculiar art, while he never said
a word which committed himself, at the same time
to persuade the hearer that he was speaking with-
out the least shadow of scrupulous caution or re-
serve. Eavenswood, in spite of his prejudices and
real grounds of resentment, felt himself at once
amused and instructed in listening to him, while the
statesman, whose inward feelings had at first so
much impeded his efforts to make himself known,
had now regained all the ease and fluency of a sil-
ver-tongued lawyer of the very highest order.

His daughter did not speak much, but she smiled ;
and what she did say argued a submissive gentle-
ness, and a desire to give pleasure, which, to a proud
man like Eavenswood, was more fascinating than
the most brilliant wit. Above all, he could not but
observe, that, whether from gratitude, or from some
other motive, he himself, in his deserted and unpro-
vided hall, was as much the object of respectful
attention to his guests, as he would have been when
surrounded by all the appliances and means of hos-
pitality proper to his high birth. All deficiencies
passed unobserved, or, if they did not escape notice,
it was to praise the substitutes which Caleb had
contrived to supply the want of the usual accom-
modations. Where a smile was unavoidable, it was
a very good-humoured one, and often coupled with
some well-turned compliment, to show how much
the guests esteemed the merits of their noble host,
how little they thought of the inconveniences with
which they were surrounded. I am not sure
whether the pride of being found to outbalance, in

196 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

virtue of his own personal merit, all the disadvan-
tages of fortune, did not make as favourable an im-
pression upon the haughty heart of the Master of
Eavenswood, as the conversation of the father and
the beauty of Lucy Ashton.

The hour of repose arrived. The Keeper and
his daughter retired to their apartments, which
were " decored " more properly than could have
been anticipated. In making the necessary arrange-
ments, Mysie had indeed enjoyed the assistance of
a gossip who had arrived from the village upon an
exploratory expedition, but had been arrested by
Caleb, and impressed into the domestic drudgery of
the evening. So that, instead of returning home
to describe the dress and person of the grand young
lady, she found herself compelled to be active in
the domestic economy of Wolf's Crag.

According to the custom of the time, the Master
of Eavenswood attended the Lord Keeper to his
apartment, followed by Caleb, who placed on the
table, with all the ceremonials due to torches of
wax, two rudely-framed tallow-candles, such as in
those days were only used by the peasantry, hooped
in paltry clasps of wire, which served for candle-
sticks. He then disappeared, and presently en-
tered with two earthen liagons, (the china, he said,
had been little vised since my lady's time,) one filled
with canary wine, the other with brandy.^ The
canary sack, unheeding all probabilities of detec-
tion, he declared had been twenty years in the cel-
lars of Wolf's Crag, " though it was not for him to
speak before their honours ; the brandy — it was
weel-kend liquor, as mild as mead, and as strong
as Samson — it had been in the house ever since

1 Note II. — Ancient Hosjiitality.

THE BRIDE OP LA.MMERMOOR. 197

the memorable revel, iu which auld Micklestob had
been slaiu at the head of the stair by Jamie of Jeu-
klebrae, on account of the honour of the worship-
ful Lady Muirend, wha was in some sort an ally
of the family ; natheless "

" But to cut that matter short, Mr. Caleb," said
the Keeper, " perhaps you will favour me with a
ewer of water."

" God forbid your lordship should drink water in
this family," replied Caleb, " to the disgrace of so
honourable an house ! "

" Nevertheless, if his lordship have a fancy," said
the Master, smiling, " I think you might indulge him ;
for, if I mistake not, there has been water drank here
at no distant date, and with good relish too."

" To be sure, if his lordship has a fancy," said
Caleb ; and re-entering with a jug of pure element
— " He will scarce find such water onywhere as
is drawn frae the well at Wolf's Crag — never-
theless "

" Nevertheless, we must leave the Lord Keeper to
his repose in this poor chamber of ours," said the
Master of Eavenswood, interrupting his talkative
domestic, who immediately turning to the doorway,
with a profound reverence, prepared to usher his
master from the secret chamber.

But the Lord Keeper prevented his host's de-
parture. — "I have but one word to say to the Mas-
ter of Eavenswood, Mr. Caleb, and I fancy he will
excuse your waiting."

With a second reverence, lower than the former,
Caleb withdrew — and his master stood motionless,
expecting, with considerable embarrassment, what
was to close the events of a day fraught with unex-
pected incidents.

198 TALES OF MY LANDLORD

"Master of Eavenswood," said Sir William Ash-
ton, with some embarrassment, " I hope you under-
stand the Christian law too well to suffer the sun to
set upon your anger."

The Master blushed and replied, "He had no
occasion that evening to exercise the duty enjoined
upon him by his Christian faith."

" I should have thought otherwise," said his guest,
" considering the various subjects of dispute and
litigation which have unhappily occurred more fre-
quently than was desirable or necessary betwixt the
late honourable lord, your father, and myself."

" I could wish, my lord," said Eavenswood, agi-
tated by suppressed emotion, "that reference to
these circumstances should be made anywhere
rather than under my father's roof."

" I should have felt the delicacy of this appeal at
another time," said Sir William Ashton, " but now
1 must proceed with what I mean to say. — I have
suffered too much in my own mind, from the false
delicacy which prevented my soliciting with earnest-
ness, what indeed I frequently requested, a personal
communing with your father — much distress of
mind to him and to me might have been prevented."

"It is true," said Eavenswood, after a moment's
reflection ; " I have heard my father say your lord-
ship had proposed a personal interview."

" Proposed, my dear Master ? I did indeed pro-
pose it, but I ought to have begged, entreated, be-
seeched it. I ought to have torn away the veil
which interested persons had stretched betwixt us,
and shown myself as I was, willing to sacrifice a
considerable part even of my legal rights, in order
to conciliate feelings so natural as his must be al-
lowed to have been. Let me say for myself, my

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 199

young friend, for so I will call you, that had your
father and I spent the same time together which my
good fortune has allowed me to-day to pass in your
company, it is possible the land might yet have en-
joyed one of the most respectable of its ancient no-
bility, and I should have been spared the pain of
parting in enmity from a person whose general char-
acter I so much admired and honoured."

He put his handkerchief to his eyes. Eavens-
wood also was moved, but awaited in silence the
progress of this extraordinary communication.

" It is necessary," continued the Lord Keeper,
" and proper that you should understand, that there
have been many points betwixt us, in which, al-
though I judged it proper that there should be an
exact ascertainment of my legal rights by the de-
cree of a court of justice, yet it was never my inten-
tion to press them beyond the verge of equity."

" My lord," said the Master of Eavenswood, " it
is unnecessary to pursue this topic farther. "What
the law will give you, or has given you, you enjoy
— or you shall enjoy ; neither my father, nor I my-
self, would have received any thing on the footing
of favour."

" Favour ? — no — you misunderstand me," re-
sumed the Keeper ; " or rather you are no lawyer.
A right may be good in law, and ascertained to be
so, which yet a man of honour may not in every
case care to avail himself of."

" I am sorry for it, my lord," said the Master.

" Nay, nay," retorted his guest, " you speak like a
young counsellor ; your spirit goes before your wit.
There are many things still open for decision be-
twixt us. Can you blame me, an old man desirous
of peace, and in the castle of a young nobleman who

206 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

has saved my daughter's life and my own, that I am
desirous, anxiously desirous, that these should be
settled on the most liberal principles ? "

The old man kept fast hold of the Master's pas-
sive hand as he spoke, and made it impossible for
him, be his predetermination what it would, to re-
turn any other than an acquiescent reply ; and
wishing his guest good-uight, he postponed farther
conference until the next morning.

Eavenswood hurried into the hall, where he was
to spend the night, and for a time traversed its
pavement with a disordered and rapid pace. His
mortal foe was under his roof, yet his sentiments
towards him were neither those of a feudal enemy
nor of a true Christian. He felt as if he could
neither forgive him in the one character, nor follow
forth his vengeance in the other, but that he was
making a base and dishonourable composition be-
twixt his resentment against the father and his
affection for his daughter. He cursed himself, as
he hurried to and fro in the pale moonlight, and
more ruddy gleams of the expiring wood-fire. He
threw open and shut the latticed windows with vio-
lence, as if alike impatient of the admission and
exclusion of free air. At length, however, the tor-
rent of passion foamed off its madness, and he flung
himself into the chair, which he proposed as his
place of repose for the night.

If, in reality, — such were the calmer thoughts
that followed the first tempest of his passion, — if,
in reality, this man desires no more than the law
allows him — if lie is willing to adjust even his
acknowledged riglits upon an equitable footing, what
could be my father's cause of complaint ? — what
is mine ? — Those from whom we won our ancient

Tii£ BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 201

possessions fell under the sword of my ancestors,
and left lands and livings to the conquerors ; we
sink under the force of the law, now too powerful
for the Scottish chivalry. Let us parley with the
victors of the day, as if we had been besieged in our
fortress, and without hope of relief. This man may
be other than I have thought him ; and his daughter
— but I have resolved not to think of her.

He wrapt his cloak around him, fell asleep, and
dreamed of Lucy Ashton till daylight gleamed
through the lattices.

CHAPTEK XV.

We worldly men, wheu we see friends and kinsmen
Past hope sunk in their fortunes, lend no hand
To lift them up, but rather set our feet
Upon their heads to press them to the bottom,
As I must yield with you I practised it ;
But now I see you in a way to rise,
I can and will assist you.

New Way to Pay Old Debts.

The Lord Keeper carried with him to a couch harder
than he was accustomed to stretch himself upon,
the same ambitious thoughts and poUtical perplex-
ities, which drive sleep from the softest down that
ever spread a bed of state. He had sailed long
enough amid the contending tides and currents of
the time to be sensible of their peril, and of the
necessity of trimming his vessel to the prevailing
wind, if he would have her escape shipwreck in the
storm. The nature of his talents, and the timorous-
ness of disposition connected with them, had made
him assume the pliability of the versatile old Earl
of Northampton, who explained the art by which
he kept his ground during all the changes of state,
from the reign of Henry YIII. to that of Elizabeth,
by the frank avowal, that he was born of the willow,
not of the oak. It had accordingly been Sir "William
Ashton's policy, on all occasions, to watch the changes
in the political horizon, and, ere yet the conflict was
decided, to negotiate some interest for himself with
the party most likely to prove victorious. His time-
serving disposition was well known, and excited the

THE BRIDE OF LAMAIERMOOR. 203

contempt of the more daring leaders of both factions
in the state. But his talents were of a useful and
practical kind, and his legal knowledge held in high
estimation ; and they so far counterbalanced other
deficiencies, that those in power were glad to use
and to reward, though without absolutely trusting
or greatly respecting him.

The Marquis of A had used his utmost in-
fluence to effect a change in the Scottish cabinet,
and his schemes had been of late so well laid and
so ably supported, that there appeared a very great
chance of his proving ultimately successful. He
did not, however, feel so strong or so confident as
to neglect any means of drawing recruits to his
standard. The acquisition of the Lord Keeper was
deemed of some importance, and a friend, perfectly
acquainted with his circumstances and character,
became responsible for his political conversion.

When this gentleman arrived at Eavenswood
Castle upon a visit, the real purpose of which was
disguised under general courtesy, he found the pre-
vailing fear, which at present beset the Lord Keeper,
was that of danger to his own person from the Mas-
ter of Eavenswood. The language which the blind
sibyl, old Alice, had used ; the sudden appearance
of the Master, armed, and within his precincts, im-
mediately after he had been warned against danger
from him ; the cold and haughty return received in
exchange for the acknowledgments with which he
loaded him for his timely protection, had all made
a strong impression on his imagination.

So soon as the Marquis's political agent found
how the wind sate, he began to insinuate fears and
doubts of another kind, scarce less calculated to
affect the Lord Keeper. He enquired with seeming

204 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

interest, whether the proceedings in Sir William's
complicated litigation with the Eavenswood family
were out of court, and settled without the possibility
of appeal ? The Lord Keeper answered in the af-
firmative ; but his interrogator was too well informed
to be imposed upon. He pointed out to him, by un-
answerable arguments, that some of the most im-
portant points which had been decided in his favour
against the house of Eavenswood, were liable, under
the Treaty of Union, to be reviewed by the British
House of Peers, a court of equity of which the Lord
Keeper felt an instinctive dread. This course came
instead of an appeal to the old Scottish Parliament,
or, as it was technically termed, " a protestation for
remeid in law."

The Lord Keeper, after he had for some time
disputed the legality of such a proceeding, was com-
pelled, at length, to comfort himself with the im-
probability of the young Master of Eavenswood's
finding friends in parliament, capable of stirring in
so w^eighty an affair.

" Do not comfort yourself with that false hope,"
said his w41y friend ; " it is possible that, in the
next session of Parliament, young Eavenswood
may find more friends and favour even than your
lordship"

" That would be a sight worth seeing," said the
Keeper, scornfully.

" And yet," said his friend, " such things have
been seen ere now, and in our own time. There
are many at the head of affairs even now, that a
few years ago were under hiding for their lives ;
and many a man now dines on plate of silver, that
was fain to eat his crowdy without a bicker ; and
many a high head has been brought full low among

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 205

us in as short a space. Scott of Scotstarvet's (m)
' Staggering State of Scots Statesmen,' of which
curious memoir you showed me a manuscript, has
been outstaggered in our time."

The Lord Keeper answered with a deep sigh,
" that these mutations were no new sights in Scot-
land, and had been witnessed long before the time
of the satirical author he had quoted. It was many
a long year," he said, " since Fordun had quoted
as an ancient proverb, ' Neqiie dives, neque fortis,
sed nee sapiens Seotus, prcedominante invidia, diu
durahit in terra.' "

"And be assured, my esteemed friend," was the
answer, " that even your long services to the state,
or deep legal knowledge, will not save you, or

render your estate stable, if the Marquis of A

comes in with a party in the British Parliament.
You know that the deceased Lord Ravenswood
was his near ally, his lady being fifth in descent
from the Knight of Tillibardine ; and I am well
assured that he will take young Ravenswood by the
hand, and be his very good lord and kinsman.
Why should he not ? — The Master is an active
and stirring young fellow, able to help himself with
tongue and hands ; and it is such as he that finds
friends among their kindred, and not those unarmed
and unable Mephibosheths, that are sure to be a
burden to every one that takes them up. And so,
if these Ravenswood cases be called over the coals
in the House of Peers, you will find that the Mar-
quis will have a crow to pluck with you."

" That would be an evil requital," said the Lord
Keeper, "for my long services to the state, and the
ancient respect in which I have held his lordship's
honourable family and person."

2o6 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

"Ay, but," rejoined the agent of the Marquis,
" it is in vain to look back on past service and auld
respect, my lord — it will be present service and im-
mediate proofs of regard, which, in these sliddery
times, will be expected by a man like the Marquis."

The Lord Keeper now saw the full drift of his
friend's argument, but he was too cautious to re-
turn any positive answer.

" He knew not," he said, " the service which the
Lord Marquis could expect from one of his limited
abilities, that had not always stood at his command,
still saving and reserving his duty to his king and
country."

Having thus said nothing, while he seemed to
say every thing, for the exception was calculated
to cover whatever he might afterwards think pro-
per to bring under it. Sir William Ashton changed
the conversation, nor did he again permit the same
topic to be introduced. His guest departed, with-
out having brought the wily old statesman the
length of committing himself, or of pledging him-
self to any future line of conduct, but with the cer-
tainty that he had alarmed his fears in a most
sensible point, and laid a foundation for future
and farther treaty.

When he rendered an account of his negotiation
to the Marquis, they both agreed that the Keeper
ought not to be permitted to relapse into security,
and that he should be plied with new subjects of
alarm, especially during the absence of his lady.
They were well aware that her proud, vindictive,
and predominating spirit, would be likely to supply
him with the courage in which he was deficient —
that she was immovably attached to the party now
in power, with whom she maintained a close cor-

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 207

respondence and alliance, and that she hated, with-
out fearing, the Eavenswood family, (whose more
ancient dignity threw discredit on the newly ac-
quired grandeur of her husband,) to such a degree,
that she would have perilled the interest of her own
house, to have the prospect of altogether crushing
that of her enemy.

But Lady Ashton was now absent. The business
which had long detained her in Edinburgh, had
afterwards induced her to travel to London, not
without the hope that she might contribute her
share to disconcert the intrigues of the Marquis at
court ; for she stood high in favour with the cele-
brated Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, to whom,
in point of character, she bore considerable resem-
blance. It was necessary to press her husband
hard before her return ; and, as a preparatory step,
the Marquis wrote to the Master of Eavenswood
the letter which we rehearsed in a former chapter.
It was cautiously worded, so as to leave it in the
power of the writer hereafter to take as deep, or as
slight an interest in the fortunes of his kinsman, as
the progress of his own schemes might require:
But however unwilling, as a statesman, the Mar-
quis might be to commit himself, or assume the
character of a patron, while he had nothing to give
away, it must be said to his honour, that he felt a
strong inclination effectually to befriend the Master
of Eavenswood, as well as to use his name as a
means of alarming the terrors of the Lord Keeper.

As the messenger who carried this letter was to
pass near the house of the Lord Keeper, he had it
in direction, tliat in the village adjoining to the
park-gate of the castle,, his horse should lose a shoe,
and that, while it was replaced by the smith of the

2o8 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

place, he should express the utmost regret for the
necessary loss of time, and in the vehemence of his
impatience, give it to be understood, that he was

bearing a message from the Marquis of A to

the Master of Eavenswood, upon a matter of life
and death.

This news, with exaggerations, was speedily car-
ried from various quarters to the ears of the Lord
Keeper, and each reporter dwelt upon the extreme
impatience of the courier, and the surprising short
time in which he had executed his journey. The
anxious statesman heard in silence ; but in private
Lockhard received orders to watch the courier on
his return, to waylay him in the village, to ply him
with liquor if possible, and to use all means, fair or
foul, to learn the contents of the letter of which he
was the bearer. But as this plot had been foreseen,
the messenger returned by a different and distant road,
and thus escaped the snare that was laid for him.

After he had been in vain expected for some
time, Mr. Dingwall had orders to make especial
enquiry among his clients of "Wolf's-hope, whether

such a domestic belonging to the Marquis of A

had actually arrived at the neighbouring castle.
This was easily ascertained ; for Caleb had been in
the village one morning by five o'clock, to borrow
" twa chappins of ale and a kipper " for the mes-
senger's refreshment, and the poor fellow had been
ill for twenty -four hours at Luckie Sma'trash's, in
consequence of dining upon " saut saumon and sour
drink." So that the existence of a correspondence
betwixt the Marquis and his distressed kinsman,
which Sir William Ashton had sometimes treated
as a bugbear, was proved beyond the possibility of
further doubt.

THE BRIDE OE LAMMERMOOR. 209

The alarm of the Lord Keeper became very seri-
ous. Since the Claim of Eight {n) the power of
appealing from the decisions of the civil court to
the Estates of Parliament, which had formerly been
held incompetent, had in many instances been
claimed, and in some allowed, and he had no small
reason to apprehend the issue, if the English House
of Lords should be disposed to act upon an appeal
from the Master of Eavenswood " for remeid in
law." It would resolve into an equitable claim, and
be decided, perhaps, upon the broad principles of
justice, which w^ere not quite so favourable to the
Lord Keeper as those of strict law. Besides, judg-
ing, though most inaccurately, from courts which
he had himself known in the unhappy times pre-
ceding the Scottish Union, the Keeper might have
too much right to think, that in the House to which
his lawsuits were to be transferred, the old maxim
might prevail in Scotland which was too well recog-
nized in former times, — " Show me the man, and I'll
show you the law." The high and unbiassed charac-
ter of English judicial proceedings was then little
known in Scotland ; and the extension of them to
that country was one of the most valuable advan-
tages which it gained by the Union. But this was
a blessing which the Lord Keeper, who had lived
under another system, could not have the means of
foreseeing. In the loss of his political consequence,
he anticipated the loss of his lawsuit. Meanwhile,
every report whicli reached him served to render
the success of the Marquis's intrigues the more
probable, and the Lord Keeper began to think it
indispensable, that he should look round for some
kind of protection against the coming storm. The
timidity of his temper induced him to adopt mea-

14

2IO TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

sures of compromise and conciliation. The affair
of the wild bull, properly managed, might, he
thought, be made to facilitate a personal communi-
cation and reconciliation betwixt the Master and
himself. He would then learn, if possible, what his
own ideas were of the extent of his rights, and the
means of enforcing them ; and perhaps matters
might be brought to a compromise, where one party
was wealthy, and the other so very poor. A re-
conciliation with Eavenswood was likely to give
him an opportunity to play his own game with the

Marquis of A . "And besides," said he to

himself, " it will be an act of generosity to raise up
the heir of this distressed family ; and if he is to
be warmly and effectually befriended by the new
government, who knows but my virtue may prove
its own reward ? "

Thus thought Sir William Ashton, covering with
no unusual self-delusion his interested views with
a hue of virtue ; and having attained this point, his
fancy strayed still farther. He began to bethink
himself, " that if Eavenswood was to have a dis-
tinguished place of power and trust — and if such a
union would sopite the heavier part of his unad-
justed claims — there might be worse matches for
his daughter Lucy — the IMaster might be reponed
against the attainder — Lord Eavenswood was an
ancient title, and the alliance would, in some mea-
sure, legitimate his own possession of the greater
part of the Master's spoils, and make the surrender
of the rest a subject of less bitter regret."

"With these mingled and multifarious plans occu-
pying his head, the Lord Keeper availed himself
of my Lord Bittlebrains's repeated invitation to his
residence, and thus came within a very few miles

THE BRIDE OF LAJIMERMOOR. 211

of Wolf's Crag. Here he found the lord of the
mansion absent, but was courteously received by
the lady, who expected her husband's immediate
return. She expressed her particular delight at
seeing Miss Ashton, and appointed the hounds to
be taken out for the Lord Keeper's special amuse-
ment. He readily entered into the proposal, as
giving him an opportunity to reconnoitre Wolf's
Crag, and perhaps to make some acquaintance with
the owner, if he should be tempted from his deso-
late mansion by the chase. Lockhard had his or-
ders to endeavour on his part to make some
acquaintance with the inmates of the castle, and we
have seen how he played his part.

The accidental storm did more to further the
Lord Keeper's plan of forming a personal acquaint-
ance with young Eavenswood, than his most san-
guine expectations could have anticipated. His fear
of the young nobleman's personal resentment had
greatly decreased, since he considered him as for-
midable from his legal claims, and the means he
might have of enforcing them. But although he
thought, not unreasonably, that only desperate cir-
cumstances drove men on desperate measures, it
was not without a secret terror, which shook his
heart within him, that he first felt himself enclosed
within the desolate Tower of Wolf's Crag ; a place
so well fitted, from solitude and strength, to be a
scene of violence and vengeance. The stern recep-
tion at first given to them by the Master of Eavens-
wood, and the difficulty he felt in explaining to
that injured nobleman what guests were under the
shelter of his roof, did not soothe these alarms ;
so that when Sir William Ashton heard the door
of the court-yard shut behind him with violence,

212 TALES or MY LANDLORD.

the words of Alice rung in his ears, " that he had
drawn on matters too hardly w^ith so fierce a race as
those of Eavenswood, and that they would bide
their time to be avenged."

The subsequent frankness of the Master's hospi-
tality, as their acquaintance increased, abated the
apprehensions these recollections were calculated to
excite ; and it did not escape Sir William Ashton,
that it was to Lucy's grace and beauty he owed the
change in their host's behaviour.

All these thoughts thronged upon him when he
took possession of the secret chamber. The iron
lamp, the unfurnished apartment, more resembling
a prison than a place of ordinary repose, the hoarse
and ceaseless sound of the waves rushing against the
base of the rock on which the castle was founded,
saddened and perplexed his mind. To his own
successful machinations, the ruin of the family had
been in a great measure owing, but his disposition
was crafty and not cruel ; so that actually to wit-
ness the desolation and distress he had himself
occasioned, was as painful to him as it Avould be
to the humane mistress of a family to superintend
in person the execution of the lambs and poultry
which are killed by her own directions. At the
same time, when he thought of the alternative, of
restoring to Eavenswood a large proportion of his
spoils, or of adopting, as an ally and member of his
own family, the heir of this impoverished house, he
felt as the spider may be supposed to do, when his
whole web, the intricacies of which had been planned
with so much art, is destroyed by the cliance sweep
of a broom. And then, if he should commit him-
self too far in this matter, it gave rise to a perilous
question, which many a good husband, when under

THE BRIBE OF LAMMERMOOR. 213

temptation to act as a free agent, has asked himself
without being able to return a satisfactory answer :
" What will my w^ife — what will Lady Ashton
say ? " On the whole, he came at length to the
resolution in which minds of a weaker cast so often
take refuge. He resolved to watch events, to' take
advantage of circumstances as they occurred, and
regulate his conduct accordingly. In this spirit of
temporizing policy, he at length composed his mind
to rest.

CHAPTEE XVI.

A slight note I have about rae for )oii, for the delivery of which
you must excuse me. It is au offer that friendship calls upon me to
do, and no way offensive to you, since I desire nothing but right upon
both sides.

King and no King.

When Eavenswood and his guest met in the morn-
ing, the gloom of the Master's spirit had in part
returned. He, also, had passed a night rather of
reflection than of slumber ; and the feelings which
he could not but entertain towards Lucy Ashton,
had to support a severe conflict against those which
he had so long nourished against her father. To
clasp in friendship the hand of the enemy of his
house, to entertain him under his roof, to exchange
with him the courtesies and the kindness of domes-
tic familiarity, was a degradation which his proud
spirit could not be bent to without a struggle.

But the ice being once broken, the Lord Keeper
was resolved it should not have time again to freeze.
It had been part of his plan to stun and confuse
Ravenswood's ideas, by a complicated and technical
statement of the matters which had been in debate
betwixt their families, justly th-inking that it would
be difficult for a youth of his age to follow the ex-
positions of a practical lawyer, concerning actions
of compt and reckoning, and of multiplepoindings,
and adjudications and wadsets, proper and improper,
and poindings of the ground, and declarations of the

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 215

expiry of the legal. Thus, thought Sir William, I
shall have all the grace of appearing perfectly com-
municative, while my party will derive very little
advantage from any thing I may tell him. He
therefore took Kavenswood aside into the deep re-
cess of a window in the hall, and resuming the dis-
course of the preceding evening, expressed a hope
that his young friend would assume some patience,
in order to hear him enter into a minute and ex-
planatory detail of those unfortunate circumstances,
in which his late honourable father had stood at
variance with the Lord Keeper. The Master of
Eavenswood coloured highly, but was silent ; and the
Lord Keeper, though not greatly approving the sud-
den heightening of his auditor's complexion, com-
menced the history of a bond for twenty thousand
marks, advanced by his father to the father of Allan
Lord Eavenswood, and was proceeding to detail the
executorial proceedings by which this large sum
had been rendered a delitum fundi (0), when he
was interrupted by the Master.

" It is not in this place," he said, " that I can hear
Sir William Ashton's explanation of the matters in
question between us. It is not here, where my
father died of a broken heart, that I can with de-
cency or temper investigate the cause of his dis-
tress. I might remember that I was a son, and for-
get the duties of a host. A time, however, there
must come, when these things shall be discussed in
a place and in a presence where both of us will have
equal freedom to speak and to hear."

" Any time," the Lord Keeper said, " any place,
was alike to those who sought nothing but justice.
Yet it would seem he was, in fairness, entitled to
gome premonition respecting the grounds upon which

2i6 TALES or MY LANDLORD.

the Master proposed to impugn the whole train of
legal proceedings, which had been so well and ripely
advised in the only courts competent."

" Sir William Ashton," answered the Master, with
warmth, " the lands which you now occupy were
granted to my remote ancestor for services done with
his sword against the English invaders. How they
have glided from us by a train of proceedings that
seem to be neither sale, nor mortgage, nor adjudica-
tion for debt, but a nondescript and entangled mix-
ture of all these rights — how annual-rent has been
accumulated upon principal, and no nook or coign
of legal advantage left unoccupied, until our inter-
est in our hereditary property seems to have melted
away like an icicle in thaw — all this you under-
stand better than I do. I am willing, however, to
suppose, from the frankness of your conduct towards
me, that I may in a great measure have mistaken
your personal character, and that things may have
appeared right and fitting to you, a skilful and prac-
tised lawyer, which to my ignorant understand-
ing seem very little short of injustice and gross
oppression."

" And you, my dear Master," answered Sir Wil-
liam, " you, permit me to say, have been equally
misrepresented to me. I was taught to believe you
a fierce, imperious, hot-headed youth, ready, at the
slightest provocation, to throw your sword into the
scales of justice, and to appeal to those rude and
forcible measures from which civil polity has long
protected the people of Scotland. Then, since we
were mutually mistaken in each other, why should
not the young nobleman be willing to listen to the
old lawyer, while, at least, be explains the points of
difference betwixt them ? "

THE BRIDE OE LAMMERMOOR. 217

" No, my lord," answered Ravenswood ; " it is in
the House of British Peers/ whose honour must be
equal to their rank — it is in the court of last re-
sort that we must parley together. The belted
lords of Britain, her ancient peers, must decide, if
it is their will that a house, not the least noble of
their members, shall be stripped of their possessions,
the reward of the patriotism of generations, as the
pawn of a wretched mechanic becomes forfeit to the
usurer the instant the hour of redemption has passed
away. If they yield to the grasping severity of the
creditor, and to the gnawing usury that eats into
our lands as moths into a raiment, it will be of more
evil consequence to them and their posterity than
to Edgar Kavenswood — I shall still have my sword
and my cloak, and can follow the profession of arms
wherever a trumpet shall sound."

As he pronounced these words, in a firm yet mel-
ancholy tone, he raised his eyes, and suddenly en-
countered those of Lucy Ashton, who had stolen
unawares on their interview, and observed her looks
fastened on them with an expression of enthusias-
tic interest and admiration, which had wrapt her
for the moment beyond the fear of discovery. The
noble form and fine features of Ravenswood, fired
with the pride of birth and sense of internal dignity
— the mellow and expressive tones of his voice, the
desolate state of his fortunes, and the indifference
with which he seemed to endure and to dare the
worst that might befall, rendered him a dangerous
object of contemplation for a maiden already too
much disposed to dwell upon recollections connected
with him. When their eyes encountered each other,
both blushed deeply, conscious of some strong in-
^ Note III. — Appeal to rurliament.

2i8 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

ternal emotion, and shunned again to meet each
other's look.

Sir William Ashton had, of course, closely watched
the expression of their countenances. " I need fear,"
said he internally, "neither Parliament nor protes-
tation ; I have an effectual mode of reconciling my-
self with this hot-tempered young fellow, in case he
shall become formidable. The present object is, at
all events, to avoid committing ourselves. The
hook is fixed ; we will not strain the line too soon
— it is as well to reserve the privilege of slipping it
loose, if we do not find the fish worth landing."

In this selfish and cruel calculation upon the sup-
posed attachment of Eavenswood to Lucy, he was
so far from considering the pain he might give to
the former, by thus dallying with his affections, that
he even did not think upon the risk of involving
his own daughter in the perils of an unfortunate
passion ; as if her predilection, which could not es-
cape his attention, were like the flame of a taper,
which might be lighted or extinguished at pleas-
ure. But Providence had prepared a dreadful re-
quital for this keen observer of human passions,
who had spent his life in securing advantages to
himself by artfully working upon the passions of
others.

Caleb Balderstone now came to announce that
breakfast was prepared ; for in those days of sub-
stantial feeding, the relics of the supper amply fur-
nished forth the morning meal. Neither did he forget
to present to the Lord Keeper, with great reverence,
a morning-draught in a large pewter cup, garnished
with leaves of parsley and scurvy -grass. He craved
pardon, of course, for having omitted to serve it in
the great silver standing cup as behoved, being that

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR 219

it was at present in a silversmith's in Edinburgh,
for the purpose of being overlaid with gilt.

" In Edinburgh like enough," said Eavenswood ;
" but in what place, or for what purpose, I am afraid
neither you nor I know."

" Aweel ! " said Caleb, peevishly, " there's a man
standing at the gate already this morning — tliat's
ae thing that I ken — Does your honour ken
whether ye will speak wi' him or no ? "

" Does he wish to speak with me, Caleb ? "

" Less will no serve him," said Caleb ; " but ye
had best take a visie of him through the wicket be-
fore opening the gate — it's no every ane we suld
let into this castle."

" What ! do you suppose him to be a messenger
come to arrest me for debt ? " said Eavenswood.

"A messenger arrest your honour for debt, and in
your Castle of Wolf's Crag ! — Your honour is jest-
ing wi' auld Caleb this morning." However, he
whispered in his ear as he followed him out, " I
would be loath to do ony decent man a prejudice in
your honour's gude opinion ; but I would tak twa
looks o' that chield before I let him within these
walls."

He was not an officer of the law, however ; being
no less a person than Captain Craigengelt, with his
nose as red as a comfortable cup of brandy could
make it, his laced cocked-hat set a little aside upon
the top of his black riding periwig, a sword by his
side, and pistols at his holsters, and his person ar-
rayed in a riding suit, laid over with tarnished lace,
— the very moral of one who would say. Stand, to a
true man.

When the Master had recognised him, he ordered
the gates to be opened. " I suppose," he said, " Cap-

220 TALES 0¥ MY LANDLORD.

tain Craigengelt, there are no such weighty matters
betwixt you and me, but may be discussed in this
place. I have company in the castle at present,
and the terms upon which we last parted must ex-
cuse my asking you to make part of them."

Craigengelt, although possessing the very perfec-
tion of impudence, was somewhat abashed by this
unfavourable reception. " He had no intention," he
said, " to force himself upon the Master of Eavens-
wood's hospitality — he was in the honourable ser-
vice of bearing a message to him from a friend,
otherwise the Master of Ravenswood should not
have had reason to complain of this intrusion."

" Let it be short, sir," said the Master, " for that
will be the best apology. Who is the gentleman
who is so fortunate as to have your services as a
messenger ? "

" My friend Mr. Hayston of Bucklaw," answered
Craigengelt, with conscious importance, and that
confidence which the acknowledged courage of his
principal inspired, " who conceives himself to have
been treated by you with something much short of
the respect which he had reason to demand, and
tlierefore is resolved to exact satisfaction. I bring
with me," said he, taking a piece of paper out of his
pocket, " the precise length of his sword ; and he
requests you will meet him, accompanied by a friend,
and equally armed, at any place within a mile of
the castle, when I shall give attendance as umpire,
or second, on his behoof."

" Satisfaction — and equal arms ! " repeated Ra-
venswood, w-lio, the reader will recollect, had no
reason to suppose he had given the slightest offence
to liis late inmate — " upon my word. Captain Craig-
engelt, either you have invented the most impro-

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 221

bable falsehood that ever came into the mind of
such a person, or your morning-draught has been
somewhat of the strongest. What could persuade
Bucklaw to send me such a message ? "

•' For that, sir," replied Craigengelt, " I am desired
to refer you to what, in duty to my friend, I am to
term your inhospitality in excluding him from your
house, without reasons assigned."

" It is impossible," replied the Master ; " he can-
not be such a fool as to interpret actual necessity
as an insult. Nor do I believe, that, knowing my
opinion of you. Captain, he would have employed
the services of so slight and inconsiderable a per-
son as yourself upon such an errand, as I certainly
could expect no man of honour to act with you in
the office of umpire."

" I slight and inconsiderable ! " said Craigengelt,
raising his voice, and laying his hand on his cutlass ;
" if it were not that the quarrel of my friend craves
the precedence, and is in dependence before my
own, I would give you to understand "

" I can understand nothing upon your explana-
tion. Captain Craigengelt. Be satisfied of that, and
oblige me with your departure."

" D n ! " muttered the bully ; " and is this the

answer which I am to carry back to an honourable
message ? "

" Tell the Laird of Bucklaw," answered Ravens-
wood, " if you are really sent by him, that when he
sends me his cause of grievance by a person fitting
to carry such an errand betwixt him and me, I will
either explain it or maintain it."

"Then, Master, you will at least cause to be
returned to Hayston, by my hands, his property
which is remaining in your possession."

222 TALES or MY LANDLORD.

" Whatever property Bucklaw may have left
behind him, sir," rephed the Master, " shall be re-
turned to him by my servant, as you do not show
me any credentials from him which entitle you to
receive it."

"Well, Master," said Captain Craigengelt, with
malice which even his fear of the consequences could
not suppress, — " you have this morning done me
an egregious wrong and dishonour, but far more to
yourself. A castle indeed !" he continued, looking
around him ; " why, this is worse than a coupe-gorge
house, where they receive travellers to plunder
them of their property."

" You insolent rascal," said the Master, raising
his cane, and making a grasp at the Captain's bridle,
" if you do not depart without uttering another
syllable, I will batoon you to death !"

At the motion of the Master towards him, the
bully turned so rapidly round, that with some diffi-
culty he escaped throwing down his horse, whose
hoofs struck fire from the rocky pavement in every
direction. Recovering him, however, with the
bridle, he pushed for the gate, and rode sharply
back again in the direction of the village.

As Eavenswood turned round to leave the court-
yard after this dialogue, he found that the Lord
Keeper had descended from the hall, and witnessed,
though at the distance prescribed by politeness,
his interview with Craigengelt.

" I have seen," said the Lord Keeper, " that gen-
tleman's face, and at no great distance of time — his
name is Craig — Craig — something, is it not ? "

" Craigengelt is the fellow's name," said the
Master, " at least that by which he passes at
present."

THE BRIDE OE LAMMERMOOR. 223

" Craig-in-guilt," said Caleb, punning upon the
word craig, which in Scotch signifies throat; "if
he is Craig-in-guilt just now, he is as likely to be
Craig-in-peril as ony chield I ever saw — the loon
has woodie written on his very visnomy, and I wad
wager twa and a plack that hemp plaits his cravat

yet."

" You understand physiognomy, good Mr. Caleb,"
said the Keeper, smiling ; " I assure you the gen-
tleman has been near such a consummation before
now — for I most distinctly recollect, that, upon
occasion of a journey which I made about a fort-
night ago to Edinburgh, I saw Mr. Craigengelt, or
whatever is his name, undergo a severe examina-
tion before the Privy Council."

" Upon what account ? " said the Master of Ra-
venswood, with some interest.

The question led immediately to a tale which the
Lord Keeper had been very anxious to introduce,
when he could find a graceful and fitting opportu-
nity. He took hold of the Master's arm, and led
him back towards the hall. " The answer to your
question," he said, " though it is a ridiculous busi-
ness, is only fit for your own ear."

As they entered the hall, he again took the Mas-
ter apart into one of the recesses of the window,
where it will be easily believed that Miss Ash-
ton did not venture again to intrude upon their
conference.

CHAPTER XVIL

Here is a father now,
Will truck his daughter for a foreign venture.
Make her the stop-gap to some canker'd feud,
Or fling her o'er, like Jonah, to the fishes.
To appease the sea at highest.

Anonymous.

The Lord Keeper opened liis discourse with an
appearance of unconcern, marking, however, very
carefully, the effect of his communication upon
young Eavenswood.

" You are aware," he said, " my young friend,
that suspicion is the natural vice of our unsettled
times, and exposes the best and wisest of us to the
imposition of artful rascals. If I had been disposed
to listen to such the other day, or even if I had
been the wily politician which you have been taught
to believe me, you, Master of Eavenswood, instead
of being at freedom, and with full liberty to solicit
and act against me as you please, in defence of what
you suppose to be your rights, w^ould have been in
the Castle of Edinburgh, or some other state pri-
son ; or, if you had escaped that destiny, it must
have been by flight to a foreign country, and at the
risk of a sentence of fugitation."

" My Lord Keeper," said the Master, " T think
you would not jest on such a subject — yet it seems
impossible you can be in earnest."

THE BRIDE OF LAMMEUMOOR. 225

" Inuoceuce," said the Lord Keeper, '• is also con-
fident, and sometimes, though very excusably, pre-
sumptuously so."

" I do not understand," said Eavenswood, " how
a consciousness of innocence can be, in any case,
accounted presumptuous."

" Imprudent, at least, it may be called," said Sir
William Ashton, " since it is apt to lead us into
the mistake of supposing that sufficiently evident
to others, of which, in fact, we are only conscious
ourselves. I have known a rogue, for this very
reason, make a better defence than an innocent man
could have done in the same circumstances of sus-
picion. Having no consciousness of innocence to
support him, such a fellow applies himself to all the
advantages which the law will afford him, and some-
times (if his counsel be men of talent) succeeds in
compelling his judges to receive him as innocent.
I remember the celebrated case of Sir Coolie Con-
diddle, of Condiddle, who was tried for theft under
trust, of which all the world knew him guilty, and
yet was not only acquitted, but lived to sit in judg-
ment on honester folk."

" Allow me to beg you will return to the point,"
said the Master; "you seemed to say that I had
suffered under some suspicion."

" Suspicion, Master ? — ay, truly — and I can show
you the proofs of it ; if I happen only to have them
with me. — Here, Lockhard " — His attendant came
— " Fetch me the little private mail with the pad-
locks, that I recommended to your particular charge
— d'ye hear { "

" Yes, my lord." Lockhard vanished ; and the
Keeper continued, as if half speaking to himself.

" I think the papers are with me — I think so,
16

226 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

for as I was to be in this country, it was natural for
me to bring them with me. I have them, however,
at Eaveuswood Castle, that I am sure of — so per-
haps you might condescend "

Here Lockhard entered, and put the leathern
scrutuire, or mail-box, into his hands. The Keeper
produced one or two papers, respecting the infor-
mation laid before the Privy Council concerning
the riot, as it was termed, at the funeral of Allan
Lord Eavenswood, and the active share he had
himself taken in quashing the proceedings against
the Master. These documents had been selected
with care, so as to irritate the natural curiosity of
Eavenswood upon such a subject, without grati-
fying it, yet to show that Sir WilUam Ashton had
acted upon that trying occasion the part of an ad-
vocate and peacemaker betwixt him and the jealous
authorities of the day. Having furnished his host
with such subjects for examination, the Lord Keeper
went to the breakfast-table, and entered into light
conversation, addressed partly to old Caleb, whose
resentment agamst the usurper of the Castle of
Eavenswood began to be softened by his familiar-
ity, and partly to his daughter.

After perusing these papers, the Master of Eavens-
wood remained for a minute or two with his hand
pressed against his brow, in deep and profound med-
itation. He then again ran his eye hastily over the
papers, as if desirous of discovering in them some
deep purpose, or some mark of fabrication, whicli
had escaped him at first perusal. Apparently the
second reading confirmed the opinion which had
pressed upon him at the first, for he started from
the stone bench on which he was sitting, and, going
to the Lord Keeper, took his hand^ and, strongly

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 227

pressing it, asked his pardon repeatedly for the in-
justice he had done him, when it appeared he was
experiencing, at his hands, the benefit of protection
to his person, and vindication to his character.

The statesman received these acknowledgments
at first with well-feigned surprise, and then with an
affectation of frank cordiality. The tears began al-
ready to start from Lucy's blue eyes at viewing this
unexpected and moving scene. To see the Master,
late so haughty and reserved, and whom she had
always supposed the injured person, supplicating
her father for forgiveness, was a change at once sur-
prising, flattering, and affecting.

"Dry your eyes, Lucy," said her father; "why
should you weep, because your father, though a
lawyer, is discovered to be a fair and honourable
man? — What have you 1:0 thank me for, ray dear
Master," he continued, addressing Ravenswood,
" that you would not have done in my case ? ' Suum
cuique tribuito,' was the Eoman justice, and I learned
it when I studied Justinian. Besides, have you not
overpaid me a thousand times, in saving the life of
this dear child ? "

" Yes," answered the Master, in all the remorse
of self-accusation ; " but the little service / did was
an act of mere brutal instinct ; your defence of my
cause, when you knew how ill I thought of you, and
how much I was disposed to be your enemy, was an
act of generous, manly, and considerate wisdom."

" Pshaw ! " said the Lord Keeper, " each of us
acted in his own way ; you as a gallant soldier, I
as an upright judge and privy-councillor. We could
not, perhaps, have changed parts — at least I should
have made a very sorry Tauridor, and you, my good
Master, though your cause is so excellent, might

228 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

have pleaded it perhaps worse yourself, than I who
acted for you before the council."

" My generous friend ! " said Eayenswood ; — and
with that brief word, which the Keeper had often
lavished upon him, but which he himself now pro-
nounced for the first time, he gave to his feudal
enemy the full confidence of an haughty but honour-
able heart. The Master had been remarked among
his contemporaries for sense and acuteness, as well
as for his reserved, pertinacious, and irascible char-
acter. His prepossessions accordingly, however ob-
stinate, were of a nature to give way before love
and gratitude ; and the real charms of the daughter,
joined to the supposed services of tlie father, can-
celled in his memory the vows of vengeance which
he had taken so deeply on the eve of liis father's
funeral. But they had been heard and registered
in the book of fate.

Caleb was present at this extraordinary scene,
and he could conceive no other reason for a pro-
ceeding so extraordinary than an alliance betwixt
the houses, and Eavenswood Castle assigned for the
young lady's dowry. As for Lucy, when Eaveus-
wood uttered the most passionate excuses for his
ungrateful negligence, she could but smile through
her tears, and, as she abandoned her hand to him,
assure him, in broken accents, of the delight with
which she beheld the complete reconciliation be-
tween her father and her deliverer. Even the
statesman was moved and affected by the fiery,
unreserved, and generous self-abandonment with
which the Master of Eavenswood renounced his
feudal enmity, and threw himself without hesita-
tion upon his forgiveness. His eyes glistened as
he looked upon a couple who were obviously be-

THE BRIDE OP LAMMERMOOR. 229

coming attached, and who seemed made for each
other. He thought how high the proud and chival-
rous character of Eavenswood might rise under
many circumstances, in which he found himself
" over-crowed," to use a phrase of Spenser, and
kept under, by his brief pedigree, and timidity of
disposition. Then his daughter — his favourite
child — his constant playmate — seemed formed to
live happy in a union with such a commanding
spirit as Eavenswood ; and even the fine, delicate,
fragile form of Lucy Asliton seemed to require the
support of the Master's muscular strength and
masculine character. And it was not merely dur-
ing a few minutes that Sir William Ashton looked
upon their marriage as a probable and even desir-
able event, for a full hour intervened ere his imagi-
nation was crossed by recollection of the Master's
poverty, and the sure displeasure of Lady Ashton.
It is certain, that the very unusual flow of kindly
feeling with which the Lord Keeper had been thus
surprised, was one of the circumstances which gave
much tacit encouragement to the attachment be-
tween the Master and his daughter, and led both
the lovers distinctly to believe that it was a con-
nexion which would be most agreeable to him. He
himself was supposed to have admitted this in
effect, when, long after the catastrophe of their
love, he used to warn his hearers against permit-
ting their feelings to obtain an ascendency over
their judgment, and affirm, that the greatest mis-
fortune of his life was owing to a very temporary
predominance of sensibility over self-interest. It
must be owned, if such was the case, he was long
and severely punished for an offence of very brief
duration.

230 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

After some pause, the Lord Keeper resumed the
conversation. — " In your surprise at finding me an
honester man than you expected, you have lost your
curiosity about this Craigengelt, my good Master ;
and yet your name was brought in, in the course of
that matter too."

" The scoundrel ! " said Eavenswood ; " my con-
nexion with him was of the most temporary nature
possible ; and yet I was very foolish to hold any
communication with him at all. — What did he say
of me ? "

" Enough," said the Keeper, "to excite the very
loyal terrors of some of our sages, who are for pro-
ceeding against men on the mere grounds of sus-
picion or mercenary information. — Some nonsense
about your proposing to enter into the service of
France, or of the Pretender, I don't recollect which,

but which the Marquis of A , one of your best

friends, and another person, whom some call one of
your worst and most interested enemies, could not,
somehow, be brought to listen to."

"I am obliged to my honourable friend — and
yet " — shaking the Lord Keeper's hand — " and yet
I am still more obliged to my honourable enemy."

" Inimicus amicissimus," said the Lord Keeper,
returning the pressure ; " but this gentleman — this
Mr. Hayston of Bucklaw — I am afraid the poor
young man — I heard the fellow mention his name
— is under very bad guidance."

" He is old enough to govern himself," answered
the Master.

" Old enough, perhaps, but scarce wise enough,
if he has chosen this fellow for his Jidiis Achates.
Why, he lodged an information against him — that
is, such a consequence might have ensued from his

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 231

examination, had we not looked rather at the charac-
ter of the witness than the tenor of his evidence."

" Mr. Hayston of Bucklaw," said the Master,
" is, I believe, a most honourable man, and capable
of nothing that is mean or disgraceful."

" Capable of much that is unreasonable, though ;
that you must needs allow. Master. Death will
soon put him in possession of a fair estate, if he
hath it not already ; old Lady Girnington — an ex-
cellent person, excepting that her inveterate ill-
nature rendered her intolerable to the whole world

— is probably dead by this time. Six heirs por-
tioners have successively died to make her wealthy.
I know the estates well ; they march ^ with my own

— a noble property."

" I am glad of it," said Kavenswood, " and should
be more so, w^ere I confident that Bucklaw would
change his company and habits with his fortunes.
This appearance of Craigengelt, acting in the capa-
city of his friend, is a most vile augury for his
future respectability."

" He is a bird of evil omen, to be sure," said the
Keeper, " and croaks of jail and gallows-tree. — But
I see Mr. Caleb grows impatient for our return to
breakfast."

1 t. e. They are bounded by my own.

CHAPTER XVIII.

Sir, stay at home and take an old man's counsel;
Seek not to bask you by a stranger's hearth;
Our own blue smoke is warmer than their fire.
Domestic food is wholesome, though 'tis homely,
And foreign dainties poisonous, though tasteful.

The French Courtezan.

The Master of Eavenswood took an opportunity
to leave his guests to prepare for their departure,
while he himself made the brief arrangements neces-
sary previous to his absence from "Wolf's Crag for
a day or two. It was necessary to communicate
with Caleb on this occasion, and he found that
faithful servitor in his sooty and ruinous den,
greatly delighted with the departure of their visi-
tors, and computing how long, with good manage-
ment, the provisions which had been unexpended
might furnish forth the Master's table. " He's nae
belly god, that's ae blessing ; and Bucklaw's gane,
that could have eaten a horse behind the saddle.
Cresses or water-purpie, and a bit ait-cake, can serve
the Master for breakfast as weel as Caleb. Then
for dinner — there's no muckle left on the spule-
bane ; it will brander, though — it will brander ^
very weel."

His triumphant calculations were interrupted by
the ^Master, who communicated to him, not with-
out some hesitation, his purpose to ride with the

1 Broil.

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 233

Lord Keeper as far as Eavenswood Castle, and to
remain there for a day or two.

" The mercy of Heaven forbid ! " said the old
serving-man, turning as pale as the table-cloth
which he was folding up.

" And why, Caleb ? " said his master, " why
should the mercy of Heaven forbid my returning
the Lord Keeper's visit ? "

" Oh, sir ! " replied Caleb — "0 Mr. Edgar \ I am
your servant, and it ill becomes me to speak — but
I am an auM servant — have served baith your
father and gudesire, and mind to have seen Lord
Randal, your great-grandfather — but that was when
I was a bairn. "

"And what of all this, Balderstone ? " said the
Master ; " what can it possibly have to do with my
paying some ordinary civility to a neighbour?"

" 0 Mr. Edgar, — that is, my lord ! " answered the
butler, "your ain conscience tells you it isna for
your father's son to be neighbouring wi' the like o'
him — it isna for the credit of the family. An he
were ance come to terms, and to gie ye back your
ain, e'en though ye suld honour his house wi' your
alliance, I suldna say na — for the young leddy is a
winsome sweet creature — But keep your ain state
wi' them — I ken the race 0' them weel — ■ they will
think the mair o' ye."

" Why, now, you go farther than I do, Caleb,"
said the Master, drowning a certain degree of con-
sciousness in a forced laugh ; " you are for marry-
ing me into a family that you will not allow me to
visit — how's this ? — and you look as pale as death
besides."

" 0, sir," repeated Caleb again, " you would but
laugh if I tauld it ; but Thomas the Rhymer, whose

234 TALES Of MY LANDLORD.

tongue couldna be fause, spoke the word of your
house that will e'en prove ower true if you go to
Eavenswood this day — 0, that it should e'er have
been fulfilled in my time ! "

" And what is it, Caleb ? " said Eavenswood,
wishing to soothe the fears of his old servant.

Caleb replied, " he had never repeated the lines
to living mortal — they were told to him by an auld
priest that had been confessor to Lord Allan's father
when the family were Catholic. But mony a time,"
he said, " I hae soughed thae dark words ower
to mysell, and, well-a-day ! little did I think of
their coming round this day."

" Truce with your nonsense, and let me hear the
doggerel which has put it into your head," said the
Master, impatiently.

With a -quivering voice, and a cheek pale with
apprehension, Caleb faltered out the following
lines : —

" When the last Laird of Eavenswood to Eavenswood

shall ride,
And woo a dead maiden to be his bride,
He shall stable his steed in the Kelpie's flow,
And his name shall be lost for evermoe ! "

"I know the Kelpie's flow well enough," said
the Master ; " I suppose, at least, you mean the
quick-sand betwixt this tower and Wolf's-hope;
but why any man in his senses should stable a
steed there "

" 0, never speer ony thing about that, sir — God
forbid we should ken what the prophecy means —
but just bide you at ha me, and let the strangers
ride to Eavenswood by themselves. We have done
eneush for them ; and to do mair, would be mair
against the credit of the family than in its favour."

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOK. 235

"Well, Caleb," said the Master, " I give you the
best possible credit for your good advice on this
occasion ; but as I do not go to Ravenswood to seek
a bride, dead or alive, I hope I shall choose a better
stable for my horse than the Kelpie's quick-sand,
and especially as I have always had a particular
dread of it since the patrol of dragoons were lost
there ten years since. My father and I saw them
from the tower struggling against the advancing
tide, and they w^ere lost long before any help could
reach them."

" And they deserved it weel, the southern loons ! "
said Caleb ; " what had they ado capering on our
sands, and hindering a wheen honest folk frae bring-
ing on shore a drap brandy ? I hae seen them that
busy, that I wad hae fired the auld culverin, or the
demisaker that's on the south bartizan at them, only
I was feared they miglit burst in the ganging aff."

Caleb's brain was now fully engaged with abuse
of the English soldiery and excisemen, so that his
master found no great difficulty in escaping from
him and rejoining his guests. All was now ready
for their departure ; and one of the Lord Keeper's
grooms having saddled the Master's steed, they
mounted in the court-yard.

Caleb had, with much toil, opened the double
doors of the outward gate, and thereat stationed
himself, endeavouring, by the reverential, and, at
the same time, consequential air which he assumed,
to supply, by his own gaunt, wasted, and thin per-
son, the absence of a whole baronial establishment
of porters, warders, and liveried menials.

The Keeper returned his deep reverence with a
cordial farewell, stooping at the same time from his
horse, and sliding into the butler's hand the remune-

23^5 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

ration which in those days was always given by
a departing guest to the domestics of the family
where he had been entertained. Lucy smiled on
the old man with her usual sweetness, bade him
adieu, and deposited her guerdon with a grace of
action, and a gentleness of accent, which could not
have failed to have won the faithful retainer's heart,
but for Thomas the Rhymer, and the successful
lawsuit against his master. As it was, he might
have adopted the language of the Duke, in "As You
Like It"—

Thou wouldst have better pleased me with this deed,
If thou hadi?t told iiie of another father.

liavensvvood was at the lady's bridle-rein, encour-
aging her timidity, and guiding her horse carefully
down the rocky path which led to the moor, when
one of the servants announced from the rear that
Caleb was calling loudly after them, desiring to
speak with his master. Eavenswood felt it would
look singular to neglect this summons, although
inwardly cursing Caleb for his impertinent officious-
ness ; therefore he was compelled to relinquish to
Mr. Lockhard the agreeable duty in which he was
engaged, and to ride back to the gate of the court-
yard. Here he was beginning, somewhat peevishly,
to ask Caleb the cause of his clamour, when the
good old man exclaimed, " Whisht, sir ! "Whisht,
and let me speak just ae word that I couldna say
afore folk — there " — (putting into his lord's hand
the money he had just received) — " there's three
gowd pieces — and ye'll want siller upby yonder —
But stay, whisht now ! " — for the Master was begin-
ning to exclaim against this transference — "never
say a word, but just see to get them clianged in the

THE BRIDE OE LAMMERMOOR. 237

first town ye ride through, for they are bran new
frae the mint, and kenspeckle a wee bit."

" You forget, Caleb," said his master, striving to
force back the money on his servant, and extricate
the bridle from his hold — " You forget that I have
some gold pieces left of my own. Keep these to
yourself, my old friend ; and, once more, good day
to you. I assure you I have plenty. You know
you have managed that our living should cost us
little or nothing."

" Aweel," said Caleb, " these will serve for you
another time ; but see ye has eneugh, for, doubtless,
for the credit of the family, there maun be some
civility to the servants, and ye maun hae something
to mak a show \vith when they say, Master, \vill
you bet a broad piece ? Then ye maun tak out
your purse, and say, I carena if I do ; and tak care
no to agree on the articles of the wager, and just
put up your purse again, and "

" This is intolerable, Caleb — I really must be gone."

" And you will go, then ? " said Caleb, loosening
his hold upon the Master's cloak, and changing his
didactics into a pathetic and mournful tone — " And
you will go, for a' I have told you about the proph-
ecy, and the dead bride, and the Kelpie's quick-
sand ? — Aweel ! a wilful man maun hae his way —
he that will to Cupar maun to Cupar. But pity of
your life, sir, if ye be fowling or shooting in the
Park — beware of drinking at the Mermaiden's well

He's gane ! he's down the path, arrow-flight

after her ! — The head is as clean taen aff the
Eavenswood family this day, as I wad chap the
head aff a sybo ! "

The old butler looked long after his master, often
clearing away the dew as it rose to his eyes, that

238 TALES OF MY LANDLORD

he might, as long as possible, distinguish his stately
form from those of the other horsemen. " Close
to her bridle-rein — ay, close to her bridle-rein ! —
Wisely saith the holy man, ' By this also you may
know that woman hath dominion over all men ; ' —
and without this lass would not our ruin have been
a'thegither fulfilled."

With a heart fraught with such sad auguries did
Caleb return to his necessary duties at Wolf's Crag,
as soon as he could no longer distinguish the object
of his anxiety among the group of riders, which
diminished in the distance.

In the meantime the party pursued their route
joyfully. Having once taken his resolution, the
Master of Eavenswood was not of a character to
hesitate or pause upon it. He abandoned himself
to the pleasure he felt in Miss Ashton's company,
and displayed an assiduous gallantry, which ap-
proached as nearly to gaiety as the temper of his
mind and state of his family permitted. The Lord
Keeper was much struck with his depth of observa-
tion, and the unusual improvement which he had
derived from his studies. Of these accomplishments
Sir William Ashton's profession and habits of soci-
ety rendered him an excellent judge ; and he well
knew how to appreciate a quality to which he him-
self was a total stranger, — the brief and decided
dauntlessness of the Master of Ravenswood's dis-
position, who seemed equally a stranger to doubt
and to fear. In his heart the Lord Keeper rejoiced
at having conciliated an adversary so formidable,
while, with a mixture of pleasure and anxiety, he
anticipated the great things his young companion
might achieve, were the breath of court-favour to
fill his sails.

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 239

" What could she desire," he thought, his mind
always conjuring up opposition in the person of
Lady Ashton to his now prevailing wish — " What
could a woman desire in a match, more than the
sopiting of a very dangerous claim, and the alliance
of a son-in-law, noble, brave, well-gifted, and highly
connected — sure to float whenever the tide sets his
way — strong, exactly where we are weak, in pedi-
gree and in the temper of a swordsman ? — Sure no
reasonable woman would hesitate. — But, alas ! " —
Here his argument was stopped by the conscious-
ness that Lady Ashton was not always reasonable,
in his sense of the word. " To prefer some clown-
ish Merse laird to the gallant young nobleman, and
to the secure possession of Eavenswood upon terms
of easy compromise — it would be the act of a
madwoman ! "

Thus pondered the veteran politician, until they
reached Bittlebrains' House, where it had been pre-
viously settled they were to dine and repose them-
selves, and prosecute their journey in the afternoon.

They were received with an excess of hospi-
tality ; and the most marked attention was offered
to the Master of Eavenswood, in particular, by
their noble entertainers. The truth was, that Lord
Bittlebrains had obtained his peerage by a good
deal of plausibility, an art of building up a char-
acter for wisdom upon a very trite style of common-
place eloquence, a steady observation of the changes
of the times, and the power of rendering certain
political services to those who could best reward
them. His lady and he not feeling quite easy
under their new honours, to which use had not
adapted their feelings, were very desirous to pro-
cure the fraternal countenance of those who were

240 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

born denizens of the regions into which they had
been exalted from a lower sphere. The extreme
attention which they paid to the ]\Iaster of Eavens-
wood had its usual effect in exalting his importance
in the eyes of the Lord Keeper, who, although he
had a reasonable degree of contempt for Lord Bit-
tlebrains' general parts, entertained a high opinion
of the acuteness of his judgment in all matters of
self-interest.

" I wish Lady Ashton had seen this," was his
internal reflection ; " no man knows so well as Bit-
tlebrains on which side his bread is buttered ; and
he fawns on the Master like a beggar's messan on
a cook. And my lady, too, bringing forward her
beetle-browed misses to skirl and play upon the
virginals, as if she said, pick and choose. They are
no more comparable to Lucy than an owl is to a
cygnet, and so they may carry their black brows to
a farther market."

The entertainment being ended, our travellers,
who had still to measure the longest part of their
journey, resumed their horses ; and after the Lord
Keeper, the Master, and the domestics, had drunk
doch-an-dorroch, or the stirrup-cup, in the liquors
adapted to their various ranks, the cavalcade re-
sumed its progress.

It was dark by the time they entered the avenue
of Ravenswood Castle, a long straight line leading
directly to the front of the house, flanked witli huge
elm-trees, which sighed to the night-wind, as if
they compassionated the heir of their ancient pro-
prietors, who now returned to their shades in the
society, and almost in the retinue, of their new
master. Some feelings of the same kind oppressed
the mind of the ^Master himself. He gradually

HENKV ASHTUN AND THE MAb 1 kK.-Drawu by H. Macbetli-KdeUur

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 241

became silent, and dropped a little behind the lady,
at whose bridle-rein he had hitherto waited with
such devotion. He well recollected the period,
when, at the same hour in the evening, he had ac-
companied his father, as that nobleman left, never
again to return to it, the mansion from which he
derived his name and title. The extensive front
of the old castle, on which he remembered having
often looked back, was then " as black as mourning
weed." The same front now glanced with many
lights, some throwing far forward into the night
a fixed and stationary blaze, and others hurrying
from one window to another, intimating the bustle
and busy preparation preceding their arrival, which
had been intimated by an avant-courier. The con-
trast pressed so strongly upon the Master's heart,
as to awaken some of the sterner feelings with
which he had been accustomed to regard the new
lord of his paternal domain, and to impress his
countenance with an air of severe gravity, when,
alighted from his horse, he stood in the hall no
longer his own, surrounded by the numerous me-
nials of its present owner.

The Lord Keeper, when about to welcome him
with the cordiality which their late intercourse
seemed to render proper, became aware of the
change, refrained from his purpose, and only inti-
mated the ceremony of reception by a deep reverence
to his guest, seeming thus delicately to share the
feelings which predominated on his brow.

Two upper domestics, bearing each a huge pair
of silver candlesticks, now marslialled the company
into a large saloon, or withdrawing room, where
new alterations impressed upon Ravens wood the
superior wealth of the present inhabitants of the

16

242 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

castle. The mouldering tapestry, which, in his
father's time, had half covered the walls of this
stately apartment, and half streamed from them in
tatters, had given place to a complete finishing of
wainscot, the cornice of which, as well as the
frames of the various compartments, were orna-
mented with festoons of flowers and with birds,
which, though carved in oak, seemed, such was the
art of the chisel, actually to swell their throats, and
flutter their wings. Several old family portraits
of armed heroes of the house of Eavenswood, to-
gether with a suit or two of old armour, and some
military weapons, had given place to those of King
William and Queen Mary, of Sir Thomas Hope
and Lord Stair, two distinguished Scottish lawyers.
The pictures of the Lord Keeper's father and
mother were also to be seen ; the latter, sour, shrew-
ish, and solemn, in her black hood and close pin-
ners, with a book of devotion in her hand ; the former,
exhibiting beneath a black silk Geneva cowl, or
skull-cap, which sate as close to the head as if it had
been shaven, a pinched, peevish, puritanical set of
features, terminating in a hungry, reddish, peaked
beard, forming on the whole a countenance, in the
expression of which the hypocrite seemed to con-
tend with the miser and the knave. And it is to
make room for such scarecrows as these, thought
Eavenswood, that my ancestors have been torn
down from the walls which they erected ! He looked
at them again, and, as he looked, the recollection
of Lucy Ashton (for she had not entered the apart-
ment with them) seemed less lively in his imagi-
nation. There were also two or three Dutch
drolleries, as the pictures of Ostade and Teniers
were then termed, with one good painting of the

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 243

Italian school. There was, besides, a noble full-
length of the Lord Keeper in his robes of office,
placed beside his lady in silk and ermine, a haughty
beauty, bearing in her looks all the pride of the
House of Douglas, from which she was descended.
The painter, notwithstanding his skill, overcome by
the reality, or, perhaps, from a suppressed sense of
humour, had not been able to give the husband on
the canvas that air of awful rule and right supre-
macy which indicates the full possession of domes-
tic authority. It was obvious, at the first glance,
that, despite mace and gold frogs, the Lord Keeper
was somewhat henpecked. The floor of this fine
saloon was laid with rich carpets, huge fires blazed
in the double chimneys, and ten silver sconces,
reflecting with their bright plates the lights which
they supported, made the whole seem as brilliant as
day.

" Would you choose any refreshment. Master ? "
said Sir William Ashton, not unwilling to break the
awkward silence.

He received no answer, the Master being so bus-
ily engaged in marking the various changes which
had taken place in the apartment, that he hardly
heard the Lord Keeper address him. A repetition
of the offer of refreshment, with the addition, that
the family meal would be presently ready, com-
pelled his attention, and reminded him, that he acted
a weak, perhaps even a ridiculous part, in suffering
himself to be overcome by the circumstances in
which he found himself. He compelled himself,
therefore, to enter into conversation with Sir Wil-
liam Ashton, with as much appearance of indiffer-
ence as he could well command.

" You will not be surprised, Sir William, that I

244 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

am interested in the changes you have made for the
better in this apartment. In my father's time, after
our misfortunes compelled him to live in retire-
ment, it was little used, except by me as a play-
room, when the weather would not permit me to
go abroad. In that recess was my little workshop,
where I treasured the few carpenter's tools which
old Caleb procured for me, and taught me how to
use — there, in yonder corner, under that handsome
silver sconce, I kept my fishing-rods, and hunting
poles, bows, and arrows."

" I have a young birkie," said the Lord Keeper,
willing to change the tone of the conversation, " of
much the same turn — He is never happy, save when
he is in the field — I wonder he is not here. — Here,
Lockhard — send William Shaw for Mr. Henry — I
suppose he is, as usual, tied to Lucy's apron string
— that foolish girl, iVIaster, draws the whole family
after her at her pleasure."

Even this allusion to his daughter, though art-
fully thrown out, did not recall Eavenswood from
his own topic.

" We were obliged to leave," he said, " some
armour and portraits in this apartment — may I ask
where they have been removed to ? "

" Why," answered the Keeper, with some hesi-
tation, " the room was fitted up in our absence —
and cedant anna togw, is the maxim of lawyers, you
know — I am afraid it has been here somewhat too
literally complied with. I hope — I believe they
are safe — I am sure I gave "orders — may I hope
that when they are recovered, and put in proper
order, you will do me the honour to accept them
at my hand, as an atonement for their accidental
derangement ? "

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 245

The Master of Eavenswood bowed stiffly, and,
with folded arms, again resumed his survey of the
room.

Henry, a spoilt boy of fifteen, burst into the room,
and ran up to his father. " Think of Lucy, papa ;
she has come home so cross and so fractious, that
she will not go down to the stable to see my new
pony, that Bob Wilson brought from the Mull of
Galloway."

" I think you were very unreasonable to ask her,"
said the Keeper.

" Then you are as cross as she is," answered the
boy ; " but when mamma comes home, she'll claw
up both your mittens."

" Hush your impertinence, you little forward
imp ! " said his father ; " where is your tutor ? "

" Gone to a wedding at Dunbar — I hope he'll get
a haggis to his dinner ; " and he began to sing the
old Scottish song,

" There was a haggis in Dunbar, (p)
Fal de ral, &c.

Mony better and few waur,

Fal de ral," &c.

"I am much obliged to Mr. Cordery for his at-
tentions," said the Lord Keeper ; " and pray who
has had the charge of you while. I was away, Mr.
Henry ? "

" Norman and Bob Wilson — forby my own self."

" A groom and a gamekeeper, and your own silly
self — proper guardians for a young advocate ! —
Why, you will never know any statutes but those
against shooting red-deer, killing salmon, and "

"And speaking of red-game," said the young
scape-grace, interrupting his father without scruple

246 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

or hesitation, " Noriiian has shot a buck, and I
showed the branches to Lucy, and she says they
have but eight tynes ; and she says that you killed
a deer with Lord Bittlebrains' hounds, when you
were west away, and, do you know, she says it had
ten tynes — is it true ? "

" It may have had twenty, Henry, for what I
know ; but if you go to that gentleman, he can tell
you all about it — Go speak to him, Henry — it is
the Master of Eavenswood."

While they conversed thus, the father and son
were standing by the fire ; and the Master, having
walked towards the upper end of the apartment,
stood with his back towards them, apparently en-
gaged in examining one of the paintings. The boy
ran up to him, and pulled him by the skirt of the
coat with the freedom of a spoilt child, saying, " I

say, sir — if you please to tell me " but when

the Master turned round, and Henry saw his face,
he became suddenly and totally disconcerted —
walked two or three steps backward, and still gazed
on Eavenswood with an air of fear and wonder,
which had totally banished from his features their
usual expression of pert vivacity.

"Come to me, young gentleman," said the Mas-
ter, " and I will tell you all I know about the
hunt."

" Go to the gentleman, Henry," said liis father ;
" you are not used to be so shy."

But neither invitation nor exhortation had any
effect on the boy. On the contrary, he turned
round as soon as he had completed his survey of
the Master, and walking as cautiously as if he had
been treading upon eggs, he glided back to his
father, and pressed as close to him as possible.

THE BKIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 247

Eavenswood, to avoid hearing the dispute betwixt
the father and the over-indulged boy, thought it most
polite to turn his face once more towards the pic-
tures, and pay no attention to what they said.

" Why do you not speak to the Master, you
little fool ? " said the Lord Keeper.

"I am afraid," said Henry, in a very low tone of
voice.

" Afraid, you goose ! " said his father, giving him
a slight shake by the collar, — " What makes you
afraid ? "

" What makes him so like the picture of Sir
Malise Eavenswood, then ? " said the boy, whis-
pering.

" What picture, you natural ? " said his father.
" I used to think you only a scape-grace, but I be-
lieve you will turn out a born idiot."

" I tell you it is the picture of old ]\Ialise of Eavens-
wood, and he is as like it as if he had loupen out
of the canvas ; and it is up in the old Baron"s hall
that the maids launder the clothes in, and it has
armour, and not a coat like the gentleman — and he
has not a beard and whi.skers like the picture — and
it has another kind of thing about the throat, and
no band-strings as he has — and"

" And why should not the gentleman be like his
ancestor, you silly boy ? " said the Lord Keeper.

" Ay ; but if he is come to chase us all out of the
castle," said the boy, " and has twenty men at his
back in disguise — and is come to say, with a hol-
low voice, / hide my time — and is to kill you on
the hearth as Malise did the other man, and whose
blood is still to be seen ! "

" Hush ! nonsense ! " said the Lord Keeper, not
himself much pleased to hear these disagreeable co-

248 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

incidences forced on his notice. — " Master, here
comes Lockhard to say supper is served."

And, at the same instant, Lucy entered at another
door, having changed her dress since her return.
The exquisite feminine beauty of her countenance,
now shaded only by a profusion of sunny tresses ;
the sylph-like form disencumbered of her heavy rid-
ing-skirt, and mantled in azure silk ; the grace of her
manner and of her smile, cleared, with a celerity
which surprised the Master himself, all the gloomy
and unfavourable thoughts which had for some time
overclouded his fancy. In those features, so sim-
ply sweet, he could trace no alliance with the pinched
visage of the peak -bearded, black-capped puritan, or
his starched withered spouse, with the craft ex-
pressed in the Lord Keeper's countenance, or the
haughtiness which predominated in that of his lady ;
and, while he gazed on Lucy Ashton, she seemed to
be an angel descended on earth, unallied to the
coarser mortals among whom she deigned to dwell
for a season. Such is the power of beauty over a
youthful and enthusiastic fancy.

CHAPTER XIX.

I do too ill iu this,
And must not think but that a parent's plaint
Will move the heavens to pour forth misery
Upon the head of disobedieucy.
Yet reason tells us, parents are o'erseen,
When with too strict a rein they do hold iu
Their child's affection, and control tiiat love
Which the high powers divine inspire them with.

The Hog hath lost his Pearl.

The feast of Ravenswood Castle was as remarkable
for its profusion, as that of Wolf's Crag had been
for its ill-veiled penury. The Lord Keeper might
feel internal pride at the contrast, but he had too
much tact to suffer it to appear. On the contrary, he
seemed to remember with pleasure what he called
Mr. Balderstone's bachelor's meal, and to be rather
disgusted than pleased with the display upon his
own groaning board.

" We do these things," he said, " because others do
them — but I was bred a plain man at my father's
frugal table, and I should like well would my wife
and family permit me to return to my sowens and
my poor-man-of-mutton." ^

This was a little overstretched. The Master only
answered, " That different ranks — I mean," said he,
correcting himself, " different degrees of wealth re-
quire a different style of housekeeping."

1 Note IV^. — Poor-Man-of -Mutton.

250 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

This dry remark put a stop to further conversa-
tion on the subject, nor is it necessary to record
that which was substituted in its place. The even-
ing was spent with freedom, and even cordiality;
and Henry had so far overcome his first apprehen-
sions, that he had settled a party for coursing a
stag with the representative and living resemblance
of grim Sir Malise of Eavensw^ood, called the Ee-
venger. Tlie next morning was the appointed time.
It rose upon active sportsmen and successful sport.
The banquet came in course ; and a pressing invita-
tion to tarry yet another day was given and ac-
cepted. This Eavenswood had resolved should be
the last of his stay ; but he recollected he had not
yet visited the ancient and devoted servant of his
house, old Alice, and it was but kind to dedicate
one mornins; to the gratification of so ancient an
adherent.

To visit Alice, therefore, a day was devoted, and
Lucy was the Master's guide upon the way. Henry,
it is true, accompanied them, and took from their walk
the air of a tf^tc-a-tetc, while, in reality, it was little
else, considering the variv^ty of circumstances which
occurred to prevent the boy from giving the least
attention to what passed Ijetween his companions.
Now a rook settled on a bianch within shot — anon
a hare crossed their path, and Henry and his grey-
hound went astray in pursuit of it — then he had to
hold a long conversation with the forester, which
detained him a while behind his companions — and
again he went to examine the earth of a badger,
which carried him on a good way before them.

The conversation betwixt the Master and his sis-
ter, meanwhile, took an interesting, and almost a
confidential turn. She could not help mentioning

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 251

her sense of the pain he must feel in visiting scenes
so well knovvn to him, bearing now an aspect so dif-
ferent ; and so gently was her sympathy expressed,
that Eavenswood felt it for a moment as a full
requital of all his misfortunes. Some such senti-
ment escaped him, which Lucy heard w^th more of
confusion than displeasure ; and she may be forgiven
the imprudence of listening to such language, con-
sidering that the situation in which she was placed
by her father seemed to authorize Ravenswood to
use it. Yet she made an effort to turn the conver-
sation, and she succeeded ; for the Master also had
advanced farther than he intended, and his con-
science had instantly checked him when he found
himself on the verge of speaking of love to the
daughter of Sir William Ashton.

They now approached the hut of old Alice, which
had of late been rendered more comfortable, and pre-
sented an appearance less picturesque, perhaps, but
far neater than before. The old woman was on her
accustomed seat beneath the weeping birch, bask-
ing, with the listless enjoyment of age and infirmity,
in the beams of the autumn sun. At the arrival of
her visitors she turned her head towards them. " I
hear your step, Miss Ashton," she said, " but the
gentleman who attends you is not my lord, your
father."

"And why should you think so, Alice?" said
Lucy; "or how is it possible for you to judge so ac-
curately by the sound of a step, on this firm earth,
and in the open air ? "

"My hearing, my child, has been sharpened by
my blindness, and I can now draw conclusions from
the slightest sounds, which formerly reached my
ears as unheeded as they now approach yours. Ne-

252 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

cessity is a stern, but an excellent schoolmistress,
and she that has lost her sight must collect her
information from other sources."

" Well, you hear a man's step, I grant it," said
Lucy ; " but why, Alice, may it not be my father's ? "

" The pace of age, my love, is timid and cautious

— the foot takes leave of the earth slowly, and is
planted down upon it with hesitation ; it is the hasty
and determined step of youth that I now hear, and

— could I give credit to so strange a thought — I
should say it was the step of a Kavenswood."

" This is indeed," said Eavenswood, " an acuteness
of organ which I could not have credited had I not
witnessed it. — I am indeed the Master of Eavens-
wood, Alice — the son of your old Master."

" You ? " said the old woman, with almost a scream
of surprise — "you the Master of Eavenswood —
here — in this place, and thus accompanied ? — I
cannot believe it — Let me pass my old hand over
your face, that my touch may bear witness to my
ears."

The Master sate down beside her on the earthen
bank, and permitted her to touch his features with
her trembling hand.

"It is indeed!" she said, "it is the features as
well as the voice of Eavensw^ood — the high lines
of pride, as well as the bold and haughty tone. —
But what do you here. Master of Eavenswood ? —
what do you in your enemy's domain, and in com-
pany with his child ? "

As old Alice spoke, her face kindled, as probably
that of an ancient feudal vassal might have done,
in whose presence his youthful liege-lord had showed
some symptom of degenerating from the spirit of
his ancestors.

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 253

"The Master of Eavenswood," said Lucy, who
liked not the tone of this expostulation, and was
desirous to abridge it, " is upon a visit to my
father."

" Indeed ! " said the old blind woman, in an ac-
cent of surprise.

" I knew," continued Lucy, " I should do him a
pleasure by conducting him to your cottage."

" Where, to say the truth, Alice," said Ravens-
wood, " I expected a more cordial reception."

" It is most wonderful ! " said the old woman,
muttering to herself ; "but the ways of Heaven are
not like our ways, and its judgments are brought
about by means far beyond our fathoming. —
Hearken, young man," she said ; " your fathers were
implacable, but they were honourable foes ; they
sought not to ruin their enemies under the mask of
hospitality. What have you to do with Lucy Ash-
ton ? — why should your steps move in the same
footpath with hers ? — why should your voice sound
in the same chord and time with those of Sir Wil-
liam Ashton's daughter ? — Young man, he who
aims at revenge by dishonourable means "

" Be silent, woman ! " said Eavenswood, sternly ;
" is it the devil that prompts your voice ? — Know
that this young lady has not on earth a friend who
would venture farther to save her from injury or
from insult."

"And is it even so?" said the old woman, in an
altered l;)ut melancholy tone — " Then (rod help
you both ! "

" Amen ! Alice," said Lucy, who had not com-
prehended the import of what the blind woman
had hinted, " and send you your senses, Alice, and
your good-humour. If you hold this mysterious

254 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

language, instead of welcoming your friends, they
will think of you as other people do."

" And how do other people think ? " said Eavens«
wood, for he also began to believe the old woman
spoke with incoherence.

"They think," said Henry Ashton, who came up
at that moment, and whispered into Ravens wood's
ear, " that she is a witch, that should have been
burned with them that suffered at Haddington."

" What is that you say ? " said Alice, turning
towards the boy, her sightless visage inflamed with
passion ; " that I am a witch, and ought to have
suffered with the helpless old wretches who were
murdered at Haddington?"

" Hear to that now," again whispered Henry,
" and me whispering lower than a wren cheeps ! "

" If the usurer, and the oppressor, and the grinder
of the poor man's face, and the remover of ancient
land-marks, and the subverter of ancient houses,
were at the same stake with me, I could say, light
the fire, in God's name ! "

" This is dreadful," said Lucy ; " I have never
seen the poor deserted woman in this state of mind ;
but age and poverty can ill bear reproach. — Come,
Henry, we will leave her for the present — she
wishes to speak with the Master alone. We will
walk homeward, and rest us," she added, looking at
Ravenswood, "by the Mermaiden's Well."

"And Alice," said the boy, "if you know of any
hare that comes through .among the deer (q), and
makes them drop their calves out of season, you
may tell her, with my compliments to command,
that if Norman has not got a silver bullet ready
for her, I'll lend him one of my doublet-buttons on
purpose."

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 255

Alice made no answer till she was aware that
the sister and brother were out of hearing. She
then said to Eavenswood, " And you, too, are angry
with me for my love ? — it is just that strangers
should be offended, but you, too, are angry ! "

" I am not angry, Alice," said the Master, " only
surprised that you, whose good sense I have heard
so often praised, should give way to ofiensive and
unfounded suspicions."

" Offensive ? " said Alice — " Ay, truth is ever
offensive — but, surely, not unfounded."

" I tell you, dame, most groundless," replied
Eavenswood.

" Then the world has changed its wont, and the
Eavenswoods their hereditary temper, and the eyes of
old Alice's understanding are yet more blind than
those of her countenance. When did a Eavens-
• wood seek the house of his enemy, but with the
purpose of revenge ? — and hither are you come,
Edgar Eavenswood, either in fatal anger, or in still
more fatal love."

" In neither," said Eavenswood, " I give you mine
honour — I mean, I assure you."

Alice could not see his blushing cheek, but she
noticed his hesitation, and that he retracted the
pledge which he seemed at first disposed to attach
to his denial.

" It is so, then," she said, " and therefore she is
to tarry by the Mermaiden's Well ! Often has it
been called a place fatal to the race of Eavenswood
— often has it proved so — but never was it likely
to verify old sayings as much as on this day."

"You drive me to madness, Alice," said Eavens-
wood ; " you are more silly and more superstitious
than old Balderstone. Are you such a wretched

2s6 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

Christian as to suppose I would in the present day
levy war against the Asliton family, as was the
sanguinary custom in elder times ? or do you sup-
pose me so foolish, that I cannot walk by a young
lady's side without plunging headlong in love with
her ? "

" My thoughts," replied Alice, " are my own ; and
if my mortal sight is closed to objects present with
me, it may be I can look with more steadiness into
future events. Are you prepared to sit lowest at
the board which was once your father's own, un-
willingly, as a connexion and ally of his proud
successor ? — Are you ready to live on his bounty
— to follow him in the bypaths of intrigue and
chicane, which none can better point out to you —
to gnaw the bones of his prey when he has devoured
the substance ? — Can you say as Sir William Ashton
says — think as he thinks — vote as he votes, and
call your father's murderer your worshipful father-
in-law and revered patron ? — Master of Kavens-
weod, I am the eldest servant of your house, and
I would rather see you shrouded and coffined ! "

The tumult in Eavenswood's mind was uncom-
monly great; she struck upon and awakened a
chord which he had for some time successfully
silenced. He strode backwards and forwards
through the little garden with a hasty pace ; and
at length checking himself, and stopping right op-
posite to Alice, he exclaimed, " Woman ! on the
verge of the grave, dare you urge the son of your
master to blood and to revenge ? "

" God forbid ! " said Alice solemnly ; " and there-
fore I would have you depart these fatal bounds,
where your love, as well as your hatred, threatens
sure mischief, or at least disgrace, both to yourself

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 257

and others. I would shield, were it in the power
of this withered hand, the Ashtons from you, and
you from them, and both from their own passions.
You can have nothing — ought to have nothing, in
common with them — Begone from among them ;
and if God has destined vengeance on the oppres-
sor's house, do not you be the instrument."

" I will think on what you have said, Alice," said
Eavenswood, more composedly. " I believe you
mean truly and faithfully by me, but you urge the
freedom of an ancient domestic somewhat too far.
But farewell ; and if Heaven afford me better means,
I will not fail to contribute to your comfort."

He attempted to put a piece of gold into her
hand, which she refused to receive ; and, in the
slight struggle attending his wish to force it upon
her, it dropped to the earth.

" Let it remain an instant on the ground," said
Alice, as the Master stooped to raise it ; " and be-
lieve me that piece of gold is an emblem of her
whom you love ; she is as precious, I grant, but
you must stoop even to abasement before you can
win her. For me, I have as little to do with gold
as with earthly passions ; and the best news that
the world has in store for me is, that Edgar Ravens-
wood is an hundred miles distant from the seat of
his ancestors, with the determination never again
to behold it."

"Alice," said the ^Master, who began to think
this earnestness had some more secret cause than
arose from anything that the blind woman could
have gathered from this casual visit, " I have heard
you praised by my mother for your sense, acute-
ness, and fidelity ; you are no fool to start at sha-
dows, or to dread old superstitious saws, like Caleb
17

258 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

Balderstone ; tell me distinctly where my danger
lies, if you are aware of any which is tending
towards me. If I know myself, I am free from all
such views respecting Miss Ashton as you impute
to me. I have necessary business to settle with Sir
William — that arranged, I shall depart ; and with
as little wish, as you may easily believe, to return
to a place full of melancholy subjects of reflection,
as you have to see me here."

Alice bent her sightless eyes on the ground, and
was for some time plunged in deep meditation. " I
will speak the truth," she said at length, raising up
her head — "I will tell you the source of my ap-
prehensions, whether my candour be for good or
for evil. — Lucy Ashton loves you, Lord of Eavens-
wood ! "

" It is impossible," said the Master.

" A thousand circumstances have proved it to
me," replied the blind woman. " Her thoughts
have turned on no one else since you saved her
from death, and that my experienced judgment has
won from her own conversation. Having told you
this — if you are indeed a gentleman and your fa-
ther's son — you will make it a motive for flying
from her presence. Her passion will die like a
lamp, for want of that the flame should feed upon ;
but, if you remain here, her destruction, or yours, or
that of both, will be the inevitable consequence of
her misplaced attachment. I tell you this secret
unwillingly, but it could not have been hid long
from your own observation ; and it is better you
learn it from mine. Depart, Master of Ravens-
wood — you have my secret. If you remain an
hour under Sir William Ashton's roof without the
resolution to marry his daughter, you are a villain —

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 259

if with the purpose of allying yourself with him,
you are an infatuated and predestined fool."

So saying, the old blind woman arose, assumed
her staff, and, tottering to her hut, entered it and
closed the door, leaving Eavenswood to his own
reflections.

CHAPTER XX.

Lovelier iu her owu retired abode

than Xaiad by the side

Of Grecian brook — or Lady of the ^fcre
Loue sitting by the shores of old romance.

"Wordsworth.

The meditations of Eavenswood were of a very
mixed complexion. He saw himself at once in the
very dilemma which he had for some time felt
apprehensive he might be placed in. The pleasure
he felt in Lucy's company had indeed approached
to fascination, yet it had never altogether sur-
mounted his internal reluctance to wed with the
daughter of his father's foe ; and even in forgiving
Sir William Ashton the injuries which his family
had received, and giving him credit for the kind
intentions he professed to entertain, he could not
bring himself to contemplate as possible an alliance
betwixt their houses. Still he felt that Alice spoke
truth, and that his honour now required he should
take an instant leave of Eavenswood Castle, or be-
come a suitor of Lucy Ashton. The possibility of
being rejected, too, should he make advances to her
wealthy and powerful father — to sue for the hand
of an Ashton and be refused — this were a consum-
mation too disgraceful. " I wish her well," he said
to himself, " and for her sake I forgive the injuries
her father has done to my house ; but I will never
— no, never see her more ! "

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 261

With one bitter pang he adopted this resolution,
just as he came to where two paths parted ; the one
to the Mermaiden's Fountain, where he knew Lucy
waited him, the other leading to the castle by an-
other and more circuitous road. He paused an in-
stant when about to take the latter path, thinking
what apology he should make for conduct which
must needs seem extraordinary, and had just mut-
tered to himself, " Sudden news from Edinburgh
— any pretext will serve — only let me dally no
longer here," when young Henry came flying up
to him, half out of breath — " Master, Master, you
must give Lucy your arm back to the castle, for I
cannot give her mine ; for Norman is waiting for
me, and I am to go with him to make his ring-
walk, and I would not stay away for a gold Jaco-
bus, and Lucy is afraid to walk home alone, though
all the wild nowt have been shot, and so you must
come away directly."

Betwixt two scales equally loaded, a feather's
weight will turn the scale. " It is impossible for
me to leave the young lady in the wood alone,"
said Eavenswood ; " to see her once more can be
of little consequence, after the frequent meetings
we have had — I ought, too, in courtesy, to apprise
her of my intention to quit the castle."

And having thus satisfied himself that he was
taking not only a wise, but an absolutely necessary
step, he took the path to the fatal fountain. Henry
no sooner saw him on the way to join his sister,
than he was off like lightning in another direction,
to enjoy the society of the forester in their conge-
nial pursuits. Eavenswood, not allowing himself
to give a second thought to the propriety of his
own conduct, walked with a quick step towards the

262 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

stream, where he found Lucy seated alone by the
ruin.

She sate upon one of the disjointed stones of the
ancient fountain, and seemed to watch the progress
of its current, as it bubbled forth to daylight, in
gay and sparkling profusion, from under the sha-
dow of the ribbed and darksome vault, with which
veneration, or perhaps remorse, had canopied its
source. To a superstitious eye, Lucy Ashton, folded
in her plaided mantle, with her long hair, escap-
ing partly from the snood and falling upon her
silver neck, might have suggested the idea of the
murdered Nymph of the Fountain. But Eavens-
wood only saw a female exquisitely beautiful, and
rendered yet more so in his eyes — how could it be
otherwise — by the consciousness that she had placed
her affections on him. As he gazed on her, he felt
his fixed resolution melting like wax in the sun, and
hastened, therefore, from his concealment in the
neighbouring thicket. She saluted him, but did
not arise from the stone on which she was seated.

" My mad-cap brother," she said, " has left me,
but I expect him back in a few minutes — for for-
tunately, as any thing pleases him for a minute,
nothing has charms for him much longer."

Ravenswood did not feel the power of informing
Lucy that her brother meditated a distant excur-
sion, and would not return in haste. He sate him-
self down on the grass, at some little distance from
Miss Ashton, and both were silent for a short
space.

" I like this spot," said Lucy at length, as if she
had found the silence embarrassing ; " the bubbling
murmur of the clear fountain, the waving of the
trees, the profu.'^ion of grass and wild-flowers, that

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 263

rise among the ruins, make it like a scene in ro-
mance. I think, too, I have heard it is a spot con-
nected with the legendary lore which I love so
well."

" It has been thought," answered Eavenswood,
" a fatal spot to my family ; and I have some rea-
son to term it so, for it was here I first saw Miss
Ashton — and it is here I must take my leave of her
for ever."

The blood, which the first part of this speech
called into Lucy's cheeks, was speedily expelled by
its conclusion.

" To take leave of us. Master ! " she exclaimed ;
" what can have happened to hurry you away ? —
I know Alice hates — I mean dislikes my father —
and I hardly understood her humour to-day, it was
so mysterious. But I am certain my father is sin-
cerely grateful for the high service you rendered
us. Let me hope that having won your friendship
hardly, we shall not lose it lightly."

" Lose it, Miss Ashton ? " said the iMaster of
Ptavenswood, — " No — wherever my fortune calls
me — whatever she inflicts upon me — it is your
friend — your sincere friend, who acts or suffers.
But there is a fate on me, and I must go, or I shall
add the ruin of others to my own."

" Yet do not go from us. Master," said Lucy ; and
she laid her hand, in all simplicity and kindness,
upon the skirt of his cloak, as if to detain him —
" You shall not part from us. My father is power-
ful, he has friends that are more so than himself
— do not go till you see what his gratitude will do
for you. Believe me, he is already labouring in
your behalf with the Council."

" Tt may be so," said the Master, proudly ; " yet

264 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

it is not to your father, Miss Ashton, but to my
own exertions, that I ought to owe success in the
career on which I am about to enter. My prepar-
ations are already made — a sword and a cloak,
and a bold heart and a determined hand."

Lucy covered her face with her hands, and the
tears, in spite of her, forced their way between her
fingers. " Forgive me," said Ravenswood, taking
her right hand, which, after slight resistance, she
yielded to him, still continuing to shade her face
with the left — "I am too rude — too rough — too
intractable to deal with any being so soft and gentle
as you are. Forget that so stern a vision has crossed
your path of life — and let m'e pursue mine, sure
that I can meet with no worse misfortune after the
moment it divides me from your side."

Lucy wept on, but her tears were less bitter.
Each attempt which the Master made to explain
his purpose of departure, only proved a new evi-
dence of his desire to stay ; until, at length, instead
of bidding her farewell, he gave his faith to her for
ever, and received her troth in return. The whole
passed so suddenly, and arose so much out of the
immediate impulse of the moment, that ere the
Master of Ravenswood could reflect upon the con-
sequences of the step which he had taken, their
lips, as well as their hands, had pledged the sin-
cerity of their affection.

" And now," he said, after a moment's consider-
ation, " it is fit I should speak to Sir William Ash-
ton — he must know of our engagement. Ravens-
wood must not seem to dwell under his roof, tO'
solicit clandestinely the affections of his daughter.'*

" You would not speak to my father on the sub-
ject ? " said Lucy, doubtingly ; and then added more

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 265

warmly, " 0 do not — do not ! Let your lot in life
be determined — your station and purpose ascer-
tained, before you address my father ; I am sure he
loves you — I think he will consent — but then my
mother ! "

She paused, ashamed to express the doubt she
felt how far her father dared to form any positive
resolution on this most important subject, without
the consent of his lady.

" Your mother, my Lucy ? " replied Eavenswood,
"she is of the house of Douglas, a house that
has intermarried with mine, even when its glory
and power were at the highest — what could your
mother object to my alliance ? "

" I did not say object," said Lucy ; " but she is
jealous of her rights, and may claim a mother's title
to be consulted in the first instance."

" Be it so," replied Eavenswood ; " London is dis-
tant, but a letter will reach it and receive an an-
swer within a fortnight — I will not press on the
Lord Keeper for an instant reply to my proposal."

" But," hesitated Lucy, " were it not better to
wait — to wait a few weeks ? — Were my mother to
see you — to know you — I am sure she would ap-
prove ; but you are unacquainted personally, and the
ancient feud between the families "

Eavenswood fixed upon her his keen dark eyqs,
as if he was desirous of penetrating into her very
soul.

" Lucy," he said, " I have sacrificed to you pro-
jects of vengeance long nursed, and sworn to with
ceremonies little better than heathen — I sacrificed
them to your image, ere I knew the worth which it
represented. In the evening which succeeded my
poor father's funeral, I cut a lock from my hair,

266 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

and, as it consumed in the fire, I swore that my rage
and revenge should pursue his enemies, until they
shrivelled before me like that scorched-up symbol
of annihilation."

" It was a deadly sin," said Lucy, turning pale,
" to make a vow so fatal."

" I acknowledge it," said Raveuswood, " and it
had been a worse crime to keep it. It was for your
sake that I abjured these purposes of vengeance,
though I scarce knew that such was the argument
by which I was conquered, until I saw you once
more, and became conscious of the influence you
possessed over me."

"And why do you now%" said Lucy, "recall senti-
ments so terrible — sentiments so inconsistent with
those you profess for me — with those your impor-
tunity has prevailed on me to acknowledge ? "

" Because," said her lover, " I would impress on
you the price at which I have bought your love — •
the right I have to expect your constancy. I say
not that I have bartered for it the honour of my
house, its last remaining possession — but though
I say it not, and think it not, I cannot conceal from
myself that the world may do both."

" If such are your sentiments," said Lucy, " you
have played a cruel game with me. But it is not
too late to give it over — take back the faith and
troth which you could not plight to me without suf-
fering abatement of honour- — let what is passed be
as if it had not been — forget me — I will endeavour
to forget myself."

" You do me injustice," said the Master of Ravens-
wood ; " by all I hold true and honourable, you do
me the extremity of injustice — if I mentioned the
price at which I have bought your love, it is only to

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 267

show how much I prize it, to bind our engagement
by a still firmer tie, and to show, by what I have
done to attain this station in your regard, how much
I must suffer should you ever break your faith."

" And why, Eavenswood," answered Lucy, " should
you think that possible ? — Why should you urge
me with even the mention of infidelity ? — Is it be-
cause I ask you to delay applying to my father for
a little space of time ? Bind me by what vows you
please ; if vows are unnecessary to secure constancy,
they may yet prevent suspicion."

Eavenswood pleaded, apologized, and even kneeled,
to appease her displeasure ; and Lucy, as placable
as she was single-hearted, readily forgave the of-
fence which his doubts had implied. The dispute
thus agitated, however, ended by the lovers going
through an emblematic ceremony of their troth-
plight, of which the vulgar still preserve some
traces. They broke betwixt them ' the thin broad-
piece of gold which Alice had refused to receive
from Eavenswood.

" And never shall this leave my bosom," said
Lucy, as she hung the piece of gold round her neck,
and concealed it with her handkerchief, " until you,
Edgar Eavenswood, ask me to resign it to you —
and, while I wear it, never shall that heart acknow-
ledge another love than yours."

With like protestations, Eavenswood placed his
portion of the coin opposite to his heart. And now,
at length, it struck them, that time had hurried
fast on during this interview, and their absence at
the castle would be subject of remark, if not of
alarm. As they arose to leave the fountain which
had been witness of their mutual engagement, an
arrow whistled through the air, and struck a raven

268 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

perched on the sere branch of an old oak, near to
where they had been seated. The bird fluttered a
few yards, and dropped at the feet of Lucy, whose
dress was stained with some spots of its blood.

Miss Ashton was much alarmed, and Ravens-
wood, surprised and angry, looked everywhere for
the marksman, who had given them a proof of his
skill as little expected as desired. He was not
long of discovering himself, being no other than
Henry Ashton, who came running up with a cross-
bow in his hand,

" I knew I should startle you," he said ; " and do
you know you looked so busy that I hoped it would
have fallen souse on your heads before you were
aware of it. — What was the Master saying to you,
Lucy?"

" I was telling your sister what an idle lad you
were, keeping us waiting here for you so long," said
Eavenswood, to save Lucy's confusion.

" Waiting for me ? Why, I told you to see Lucy
home, and that I was to go to make the ring-walk
with old Norman in the Hayberry thicket, and you
may be sure that would take a good hour, and we
have all the deer's marks and furnishes got, while
you were sitting here with Lucy, like a lazy loon."

" Well, well, Mr. Henry," said Eavenswood ; " but
let us see how you will answer to me for killing the
raven. Do you know the ravens are all under the
protection of the Lords of Eavenswood, and, to kill
one in their presence, is such bad luck that it de-
serves the stab ? "

" And that's what Norman said," replied the boy ;
" he came as far with me, as within a flight-shot of
you, and he said he never saw a raven sit still so
near living folk, and he wished it might be for good

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 269

luck ; for the raven is one of the wildest birds that
flies, unless it be a tame one — and so I crept on
and on, till I was within three score yards of him,
and then whiz went the bolt, and there he lies,
faith ! Was it not well shot ? — and, I daresay,
I have not shot in a crossbow — not ten times,
maybe."

" Admirably shot mdeed," said Eavenswood ;
" and you will be a fine marksman if you practise
hard."

"And that's what Norman says," answered the
boy ; " but I arc sure it is not my fault if I do not
practise enough ; for, of free will, I would do little
else, only my father and tutor are angry sometimes,
and only Aliss Lucy there gives herself airs about
my being busy, for all she can sit idle by a well-side
the whole day, w^ien she has a handsome young
gentleman to prate with — I have known her do so
twenty times, if you will believe me."

The boy looked at his sister as he spoke, and, in
the midst of his mischievous chatter, had the sense
to see that he was really inflicting pain upon her,
though without being able to comprehend the cause
or the amount.

"Come now, Lucy," he said, "don't greet; and if
I have said any thing beside the mark, I'll deny it
again — and what does the Master of Eavenswood
care if you had a liundred sweethearts? — so ne'er
put finger in your eye about it."

The Master of Eavenswood was, for the moment,
scarce satisfied with what he heard; yet his good
sense naturally regarded it as the chatter of a spoilt
boy, who strove to mortify his sister in the point
which seemed most accessible for the time. But,
although of a temper equally slow in receiving im-

270 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

pressions, and obstinate in retaining them, the
prattle of Henry served to nourish in his mind
some vague suspicion, that his present engagement
might only end in his being exposed like a con-
quered enemy in a Eoman triumph, a captive at-
tendant on the car of a victor, who meditated only
the satiating his pride at the expense of the van-
quished. There was, we repeat it, no real ground
whatever for such an apprehension, nor could he be
said seriously to entertain such for a moment. In-
deed, it was impossible to look at the clear blue
eye of Lucy Ashton, and entertain the slightest
permanent doubt concerning the sincerity of her
disposition. Still, however, conscious pride and
conscious poverty combined to render a mind sus-
picious, which, in more fortunate circumstances,
would have been a stranger to that as well as to
every other meanness.

They reached the castle, where Sir William Ash-
ton, who had been alarmed by the length of their
stay, met them in the halL

" Had Lucy," he said, " been in any other com-
pany than that of one who had shown he had so
complete power of protecting her, he confessed he
should have been very uneasy, and would have dis-
patched persons in quest of them. But, in the com-
pany of the Master of Ravenswood, he knew his
daughter had nothing to dread."

Lucy commenced some apology for their long
delay, but, conscience struck, became confused as
she proceeded ; and when Ravenswood, coming to
her assistance, endeavoured to render the explana-
tion complete and satisfactory, he only involved
himself in the same disorder, like one who, endea-
vouring to extricate his companion from a slough,

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 271

entangles himself in the same tenacious swamp. It
cannot be supposed that the confusion of the two
youthful lovers escaped the observation of the subtle
lawyer, accustomed, by habit and profession, to trace
human nature through all her windings. But it
was not his present policy to take any notice of
what he observed. He desired to hold the Master
of Eavenswood bound, but wished that he himself
should remain free ; and it did not occur to him
that his plan might be defeated by Lucy's returning
the passion which he hoped she might inspire. If
she should adopt some romantic feelings towards
Eavenswood, in which circumstances, or the posi-
tive and absolute opposition of Lady Ashton, might
render it unadvisable to indulge her, the Lord
Keeper conceived they might be easily superseded
and annulled by a journey to Edinburgh, or even
to London, a new set of Brussels lace, and the soft
whispers of half a dozen lovers, anxious to replace
him whom it was convenient she should renounce.
This was his provision for the worst view of the
case. But, according to its more probable issue,
any passing favour she might entertain for the
Master of Eavenswood, might require encourage-
ment rather than repression.

This seemed the more likely, as he had that very
morning, since their departure from the castle,
received a letter, the contents of which he hastened
to communicate to Eavenswood. A foot-post had
arrived with a packet to the Lord Keeper from that
friend whom we have already mentioned, wlio was
lal)ouring hard under-hand to consolidate a l)and of
patriots, at the head of whom stood Sir William's
greatest terror, the active and ambitious Marquis
of A . The success of this convenient friend

272 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

had been such, that he had obtained from Sir Wil-
liam, not indeed a directly favourable answer, but
certainly a most patient hearing. This he had
reported to his principal, who had replied, by the
ancient French adage, " Chateau qui parte, etfemme
qui ecoute, I'un et Vautre va se rendre." A states-
man who hears you propose a change of measures
without reply, was, according to the Marquis's opin-
ion, in the situation of the fortress which parleys,
and the lady who listens, and he resolved to press
the siege of the Lord Keeper.

The packet, therefore, contained a letter from
his friend and ally, and another from himself to the
Lord Keeper, frankly offering an unceremonious
visit. They were crossing the country to go to the
southward — the roads were indifferent — the ac-
commodation of the inns as execrable as possible —
the Lord Keeper had been long acquainted inti-
mately with one of his correspondents, and though
more slightly known to the Marquis, had yet
enough of his lordship's acquaintance to render
the visit sufficiently natural, and to shut the mouths
of those who might be disposed to impute it to a
political intrigue. He instantly accepted the of-
fered visit, determined, however, that he would
not pledge himself an inch farther for the fur-
therance of their views than reason (by which he
meant his own self-interest) should plainly point
out to him as proper.

Two circumstances particularly delighted him :
the presence of Ravenswood, and the absence of his
own lady. By having the former under his roof,
he conceived he might be able to quash all such
hazardous and hostile proceedings as he might
otherwise have been engaged in, under the patron-

THE BRIDE OE LAMMERMOOR. 273

age of the Marquis ; and Lucy, he foresaw, would
make, for his immediate purpose of delay and pro-
crastination, a much better mistress of his family
than her mother, who would, he was sure, in some
shape or other, contrive to disconcert his political
schemes by her proud and implacable temper.

His anxious solicitations that the Master would
stay to receive his kinsman, were of course readily
complied with, since the eclaircissement which had
taken place at the Merniaiden's Fountain had re-
moved all wish for sudden departure. Lucy and
Lockhard had, therefore, orders to provide all things
necessary in their different departments, for receiv-
ing the expected guests, with a pomp and display
of luxury very uncommon in Scotland at that
remote period.

18

CHAPTER XXI.

Marull. Sir, the man of honour's come,
Newly alighted

Overreach. In without reply,

Anil do as I command.

Is the loud music I gave order for
Ready to receive him ?

New Way to Pay Old Debts.

Sir William Ashton, although a man of sense,
legal information, and great practical knowledge of
the world, had yet some points of character which
corresponded better with the timidity of his dispo-
sition and the supple arts by which he had risen in
the world, than to the degree of eminence which
he had attained; as they tended to show an origi-
nal mediocrity of understanding, however highly
it had been cultivated, and a native meanness of
disposition, however carefully veiled. He loved
the ostentatious display of his wealth, less as a man
to whom habit has made it necessary, than as one
to whom it is still delightful from its novelty. The
most trivial details did not escape him ; and Lucy
soon learned to watch the flush of scorn which
crossed Eavenswood's cheek, when he heard her
father gravely arguing with Lockhard, nay, even
with the old housekeeper, upon circumstances
which, in families of rank, are left uncared for,
because it is supposed impossible they can be
neglected.

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 275

" I could pardon Sir William," said Eavenswood,
one evening after he had left the room, "some
general anxiety upon this occasion, for the Mar-
quis's visit is an honour, and should be received as
such ; but I am worn out by these miserable minu-
tiae of the buttery, and the larder, and the very
hen-coop — they drive me beyond my patience; I
would rather endure the poverty of Wolf's Crag,
than be pestered with the wealth of Eavenswood
Castle."

" And yet," said Lucy, " it was by attention to
these minutiee that my father acquired the prop-
erty "

"Which my ancestors sold for lack of it," re-
plied Eavenswood. " Be it so ; a porter still bears
but a burden, though the burden be of gold."

Lucy sighed ; she perceived too plainly that her
lover held in scorn the manners and habits of a
father, to whom she had long looked up as her
best and most partial friend, whose fondness had
often consoled her for her mother's contemptuous
harshness.

The lovers soon discovered that they differed
upon other and no less important topics. Eeligion,
the mother of peace, was, in those days of discord,
so much misconstrued and mistaken, that her rules
and forms were the subject of the most opposite
opinions, and the most hostile animosities. The
Lord Keeper, being a whig, was, of course, a Pres-
byterian, and had found it convenient, at different
periods, to express greater zeal for the kirk, than
perhaps he really felt. His family, equally of
course, were trained under the same institution.
Eavenswood, as we know, was a High-Church man,
or Episcopalian, and frequently objected to Lucy

276 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

the fanaticism of some of her o\yii communion,
while she intimated, rather than expressed, horror
at the latitudinarian principles which she had been
taught to think connected with the prelatical form
of church-government.

Thus, although their mutual affection seemed to
increase rather than to be diminished, as their charac-
ters opened more fully on each other, the feelings
of each were mingled with some less agreeable in-
gredients. Lucy felt a secret awe, amid all her
affection for Eavenswood. His soul was of an
higher, prouder character, than those with whom
she had hitherto mixed in intercourse ; his ideas
were more fierce and free ; and he contemned many
of the opinions which had been inculcated upon her,
as chiefly demanding her veneration. On the other
hand, Eavenswood saw in Lucy a soft and flexible
character, which, in his eyes at least, seemed too
susceptible of being moulded to any form by those
with whom she lived. He felt that his own temper
required a partner of a more independent spirit,
who could set sail with him on his course of life,
resolved as himself to dare indifferently the storm
and the favouring breeze. But Lucy was so beau-
tiful, so devoutly attached to him, of a temper so
exquisitely soft and kind, that, while he could have
wished it were possible to inspire her with a greater
degree of firmness and resolution, and while he
sometimes became impatient of the extreme fear
which she expressed of their attachment being pre-
maturely discovered, he felt that the softness of a
mind, amounting almost to feebleness, rendered her
even dearer to him, as a being who had voluntarily
clung to him for protection, and made him the ar-
biter of her fate for weal or woe. His feelings

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 2??

towards her at such moments, were those which
have been since so beautifully expressed by our
immortal Joanna Baillie :

Thou sweetest thing,
That e'er did fix its lightly-fibred sprays
To the rude rock, ah ! wouldst thou cling to me ?
Rough and storm- worn I am — yet love me as
Thou truly dost, I will love thee again
With true and honest heart, thovigh all unmeet
To be the mate of such sweet gentleness.

Thus the very points in which they differed,
seemed, in some measure, to ensure the continuance
of their mutual affection. If, indeed, they had so
fully appreciated each other's character before the
burst of passion in which they hastily pledged their
faith to each other, Lucy might have feared Ravens-
wood too much ever to have loved him, and he might
have construed her softness and docile temper as
imbecility, rendering her unworthy of his regard.
But they stood pledged to each other ; and Lucy
only feared that her lover's pride might one
day teach him to regret his attachment ; Eavens-
wood, that a mind so ductile as Lucy's might, in
absence or difficulties, be induced, by the entrea-
ties or influence of those around her, to renounce
the engagement she had formed.

" Do not fear it," said Lucy, when upon one oc-
casion a hint of such suspicion escaped her lover ;
" the mirrors which receive the reflection of all
successive objects are framed of hard materials like
glass or steel — the softer substances, when they re-
ceive an impression, retain it undefaced."

" This is poetry, Lucy," said Eavenswood ; " and
in poetry there is always fallacy, and sometimes
fiction."

278 TALES or MY LANDLORD.

" Believe me then, once more, in honest prose,"
said Lucy, " that, though I will never wed man
without the consent of my parents, yet neither force
nor persuasion shall dispose of my hand till you
renounce the right I have given you to it."

The lovers had ample time for such explanations.
Henry was now more seldom their companion,
being either a most unwilling attendant upon the
lessons of his tutor, or a forward volunteer under
the instructions of the foresters or grooms. As for
the Keeper, his mornings were spent in his study,
maintaining correspondences of all kinds, and bal-
ancing in his anxious mind the various intelligence
which he collected from every quarter concerning
the expected change of Scottish politics, and the
probable strength of the parties who were about to
struggle for power. At other times he busied him-
self about arranging, and countermanding, and then
again arranging, the preparations which he judged
necessary for the reception of the Marquis of

A , whose arrival had been twice delayed by

some necessary cause of detention.

in the midst of all these various avocations, po-
litical and domestic, he seemed not to observe how
much his daughter and his guest were thrown into
each other's society, and was censured by many of
his neighbours, according to the fashion of neigh-
bours in all countries, for suffering such an intimate
connexion to take place betwixt two young persons.
The only natural explanation was, that he designed
them for each other ; while, in truth, his only mo-
tive was to temporize and procrastinate, until he
should discover the real extent of the interest which
the Marquis took in Ravenswood's affairs, and the
power which he was likely to possess of advancing

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 279

them. Until these points should be made both
clear and manifest, the Lord Keeper resolved that
he would do nothing to commit himself, either in
one shape or other ; and, like many cunning persons,
he overreached himself deplorably.

Amongst those who had been disposed to cen-
sure, with the greatest severity, the conduct of Sir
William Ashton, in permitting the prolonged resi-
dence of Kavenswood under his roof, and his con-
stant attendance on Miss Ashton, was the new Laird
of Girnington, and his faithful squire and bottle-
holder, personages formerly well known to us by
the names of Hayston and Bucklaw, and his com-
panion Captain Craigengelt. The former had at
length succeeded to the extensive property of his
long-lived grand-aunt, and to considerable wealth
besides, which he had employed in redeeming his
paternal acres, (by the title appertaining to which
he still chose to be designated,) notwithstanding
Captain Craigengelt had proposed to him a most
advantageous mode of vesting the money in Law's
scheme, which was just then broached, and offered
his services to travel express to Paris for the pur-
pose. But Bucklaw had so far derived wisdom
from adversity, that he would listen to no proposal
which Craigengelt could invent, which had the
slightest tendency to risk his newly-acquired inde-
pendence. He that had once eaten pease-bannocks,
drunk sour wine, and slept in the secret cliamber
at Wolf's Crag, would, he said, prize good cheer
and a soft bed as long as he lived, and take special
care never to need such hospitality again.

Craigengelt, therefore, found himself disappointed
in the first hopes he had entertained of making a
good hand of the Laird of Bucklaw. Still, how-

28o TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

ever, lie reaped many advantages from his friend's
good fortune Bucklaw, who had never been at all
scrupulous in choosing his companions, was accus-
tomed to, and entertained by a fellow, whom he
could either laugh with, or laugh at, as he had
a mind, who would take, according to Scottish
phrase, " the bit and the buffet," understood all
sports, whether within or without doors, and,
when the laird had a mind for a bottle of wine,
(no infrequent circumstance,) was always ready
to save him from the scandal of getting drunk by
himself. Upon these terms Craigengelt was the
frequent, almost the constant, inmate of the house
of Girnington.

In no time, and under no possibility of circum-
stances, could good have been derived from such an
intimacy, however its bad consequences might be
qualified by the thorough knowledge which Buck-
law possessed of his dependant's character, and the
high contempt in which he held it. But as cir-
cumstances stood, this evil communication was par-
ticularly liable to corrupt what good principles
nature had implanted in the patron.

Craigengelt had never forgiven the scorn with
which Eavenswood had torn the mask of courage
and honesty from his countenance ; and to exaspe-
rate Bucklaw's resentment against him, was the
safest mode of revenge which occurred to his cow-
ardly, yet cunning and malignant disposition.

He brought up, on all occasions, the story of the
challenge which Ravenswood had declined to ac-
cept, and endeavoured, by every possible insinua-
tion, to make his patron believe that his honour
was concerned in bringing that matter to an issue
by a present discussion with Ravenswood. But

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 281

respecting this subject, Bucklaw imposed ou him,
at length, a peremptory command of silence.

" I think," he said, " the Master has treated me
unlike a gentleman, and I see no right he had to
send me back a cavalier answer when I demanded
the satisfaction of one — But he gave me my life
once — and, in looking the matter over at present,
I put myself but on equal terms with him. Should
he cross me again, I shall consider the old accompt
as balanced, and his Mastership will do well to look
to himself."

" That he should," re-echoed Craigengelt ; " for
when you are in practice, Bucklaw, I would bet a
magnum you are through him before the third
pass."

" Then you know nothing of tlie matter," said
Bucklaw, " and you never saw him fence."

"And I know nothing of the matter?" said the
dependant — "a good jest, I promise you ! — and
though I never saw Ravenswood fence, have I not
been at Monsieur Sagoon's school, who was the first
tnaitre d'armes at Paris ; and have I not been at
Signer Poco's at Florence, and Meinheer Durch-
stossen's at Vienna, and have I not seen all their
play?"

" I don't know whether you have or not," said
Bucklaw ; " but what about it, though you had ? "

" Only that I will be d — d if ever I saw French,
Italian, or High-Dutchman ever make foot, hand,
and eye, keep time half so well as you, Bucklaw."

" I believe you lie, Craigie," said Bucklaw ; " how-
ever, I can hold my own, both with single rapier,
backsword, sword and dagger, broadsword, or case
of falchions — and that's as much as any gentleman
need know of the matter."

282 TALES OP MY LANDLORD.

" And the double of what ninety -nine out of a
hundred know," said Craigengelt; "they learn to
change a few thrusts with the small sword, and
then, forsooth, they understand the noble art of
defence ! Now, when I was at Eouen in the year
1695, there was a Chevalier de Chapon and I went
to the Opera, where we found three bits of English
birkies "

" Is it a long story you are going to tell ? " said
Bucklaw, interrupting him without ceremony.

" Just as you like," answered the parasite, " for
we made short work of it."

" Then I like it short," said Bucklaw ; " is it seri-
ous, or merry ? "

" Devilish serious, I assure you, and so they found
it ; for the Chevalier and I "

" Then I don't like it at all," said Bucklaw ; " so
fill a brimmer of my auld auntie's claret, rest her
heart ! And, as the Hielandman says, Skioch doch
na sMaill." ^

" That was what tough old Sir Evan Dhu used to
say to me when I was out with the metall'd lads in
1689. ' Craigengelt,' he used to say, 'you are as
pretty a fellow as ever held steel in his grip, but
you have one fault.' "

" If he had known you as long as I have done,"
said Bucklaw, "he would have found out some
twenty more ; but hang long stories, give us your
toast, man."

Craigengelt rose, went a tiptoe to the door, peeped
out, shut it carefully, came back again — clapped
his tarnished gold-laced hat on one side of his head,
took his glass in one hand, and touching the hilt of

1 " Cut a drink with a tale ; " equivalent to the Englisli adage
of boon companions, " don't preach over your liquor '"

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 283

his hanger with the other, named, " The King over
the water."

" I tell you what it is. Captain Craigengelt," said
Bucklaw; "I shall keep my mind to myself on
these subjects, having too much respect for the
memory of my venerable aunt Girnington to put
her lands and tenements in the way of committing
treason against established authority. Bring me
King James to Edinburgh, Captain, with thirty
thousand men at his back, and I'll tell you what I
think about his title ; but as for running my neck
into a noose, and my good broad lands into the sta-
tutory penalties, * in that case made and provided,'
rely upon it, you will find me no such fool. So,
when you mean to vapour with your hanger and
your dram-cup in support of treasonable toasts, you
must find your liquor and company elsewhere."

"Well, then," said Craigengelt, "name the toast
yourself, and be it what it like, I'll pledge you, were
it a mile to the bottom."

" And I'll give you a toast that deserves it, my boy,"
said Bucklaw ; " what say you to Miss Lucy Asliton ? "

" Up with it," said the Captain, as he tossed off
his brimmer, " the bonniest lass in Lothian. What
a pity the old sneck-drawing whigamore, her father,
is about to throw her away upon that rag of pride
and beggary, the Master of Ravenswood ! "

" That's not quite so clear," said Bucklaw, in a
tone, which, though it seemed indifferent, excited
his companion's eager curiosity ; and not that only,
but also his hope of working himself into some sort
of confidence, which miglit make him necessary to
his patron, being by no means satisfied to rest on
mere sufferance, if he could form by art or industry
a more permanent title to his favour.

284 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

" I thought," said he, after a moment's pause,
" that was a settled matter — they are continually
together, and nothing else is spoken of betwixt
Lammerlaw and Traprain."

" They may say what they please," replied his
patron, " but I know better ; and I'll give you Miss
Lucy Ashton's health again, my boy."

"And I would drink it on my knee," said Craig-
engelt, " if I thought the girl had the spirit to jilt
that d — d son of a Spaniard."

" I am to request you will not use the word jilt
and Miss Ashton's name together," said Bucklaw,
gravely.

" Jilt, did I say ? — discard, my lad of acres —
by Jove, I meant to say discard," replied Craigen-
gelt ; " and I hope she'll discard him like a small
card at piquet, and take in the King of Hearts, my
boy ! — But yet "

" But what ? " said his patron.

" But yet I know for certain they are hours to-
gether alone, and in the woods and the fields."

" That's her foolish father's dotage — that will be
soon put out of the lass's head, if it ever gets into
it," answered Bucklaw. "And now fill your glass
again, Captain, I am going to make you happy —
I am going to let you into a secret — a plot — a
noosing plot — only the noose is but typical."

" A marrying matter ? " said Craigengelt, and
his jaw fell as he asked the question ; for he sus-
pected that matrimony would render his situation
at Girnington much more precarious than during
the jolly days of his patron's bachelorhood.

" Ay, a marriage, man," said Bucklaw ; " but where-
fore droops thy mighty spirit, and why grow the
rubies on thy cheek so pale ? The board will

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 285

have a corner, and the corner will have a trencher,
and the trencher will have a glass beside it ; and
the board-end shall be filled, and the trencher and
the glass shall be replenished for thee, if all the
petticoats in Lothian had sworn the contrary —
What, man ! I am not the boy to put myself into
leading strings."

" So says many an honest fellow," said Craig-
engelt, " and some of my special friends ; but, curse
me if I know the reason, the women could never
bear me, and always contrived to trundle me out
of favour before the honeymoon was over."

" If you could have kept your ground till that
was over, you might have made a good year's pen-
sion," said Bucklaw.

" But I never could," answered the dejected
parasite ; " there was my Lord Castle-Cuddy — we
were hand and glove — I rode his horses — bor-
rowed money, both for him and from him — trained
his hawks, and taught him how to lay his bets ;
and when he took a fancy of marrying, I married
him to Katie Glegg, whom I thought myself as sure
of as man could be of woman. Egad, she had me
out of the house, as if I had run on wheels, within
the first fortnight ! "

" Well 1 " replied Bucklaw, " I think I have
nothing of Castle-Cuddy about me, or Lucy of
Katie Glegg. But you see the thing will go on
whether you like it or no — the only question is,
will you be useful ? "

" Useful ? " exclaimed the Captain ; — " and to thee,
my lad of lands, my darling boy, whom I would
tramp barefooted through the world for ? — name
time, place, mode, and circumstances, and see if I
will not be useful in all uses that can be devised."

286 TALES OF MY LANDLORD,

" Why, then, you must ride two hundred miles
for me," said the patron^

" A thousand, and call them a flea's leap," an-
swered the dependant ; '~ I'll cause saddle my horse
directly."

" Better stay till you know where you are to go,
and what you are to do," quoth Bucklaw. " You
know I have a kinswoman in Northumberland,
Lady Blenkensop by name, whose old acquaintance
I had the misfortune to lose in the period of my
poverty, but the light of whose countenance shone
forth upon me when the sun of my prosperity be-
gan to arise."

"D — n all such double-faced jades!" exclaimed
Craigengelt, heroically ; " this I will say for John
Craigengelt, that he is his friend's friend through
good report and bad report, poverty and riches ;
and you know something of that yourself, Buck-
law."

" I have not forgot your merits," said his patron;
" I do remember, that, in my extremities, you had
a mind to crimp me for the service of the French
king, or of the Pretender ; and, moreover, that you
afterwards lent me a score of pieces, when, as I
firmly believe, you had heard the news that old
Lady Girnington had a touch of the dead palsy.
But don't be downcast, John ; I believe, after all,
you like me very well in your way, and it is my
misfortune to have no better counsellor at present.
To return to this Lady Blenkensop, you must know
she is a close confederate of Duchess Sarah."

" What ! of Sail Jennings ? " exclaimed Craigen-
gelt; " then she must be a good one."

" Hold your tongue, aud keep your Tory rants to
yourself, if it be possible," said Bucklaw ; " I tell you,

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 287

that through the Duchess of Marlborough has this
Northumbrian cousin of mine become a crony of Lady
Ashton, the Keeper's wife, or, I may say, the Lord
Keeper's Lady Keeper, and she has favoured Lady
Blenkensop with a visit on her return from London,
and is just now at her old mansion-house on the
banks of the Wansbeck. Now, sir, as it has been
the use and wont of these ladies to consider their
husbands as of no importance in the management of
their own families, it has been their present pleasure,
without consulting Sir William Ashton, to put on
the tapis a matrimonial alliance, to be concluded
between Lucy Ashton and my own right honourable
self. Lady Ashton acting a self-constituted pleni-
potentiary on the part of her daughter and hus-
band, and Mother Blenkensop, equally unaccredited,
doing me the honour to be my representative.
You may suppose I was a little astonished when I
found that a treaty, in which I was so considerably
interested, had advanced a good way before I was
even consulted."

" Capot me if I think that was according to the
rules of the game," said his confident ; " and pray,
what answer did you return ? "

" Why, my first thought was to send the treaty to
the devil, and the negotiators along with it, for a
couple of meddling old women ; my next was to
laugh very heartily ; and my third and last was ft;
settled opinion that the thing was reasonable, and
would suit me well enough."

" Why, I thought you had never seen the wench
but once — and then she had her riding-mask on —
I am sure you told me so."

" Ay — but I liked her very well then. And
Eavens wood's dirty usage of me — shutting me out

288 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

of doors to dine with tlie lackeys, because he had
the Lord Keeper, forsooth, and his daughter, to be
guests in his beggarly castle of starvation — D — n
me, Craigengelt, if I ever forgive him till I play him
as good a trick '. "

" No more you should, if you are a lad of mettle,"
said Craigengelt, the matter now taking a turn in
which he could sympathize ; " and if you carry this
wench from him, it will break his heart."

"That it will not," said Bucklaw; "his heart is
all steeled over with reason and philosophy — things
that you, Craigie, know nothing about more than
myself, God help me — But it will break his pride,
though, and that's what I'm driving at."

" Distance me," said Craigengelt, " but I know the
reason now of his unmannerly behaviour at his old
tumble-down tower yonder — Ashamed of your com-
pany ? — no, no ! — Gad, he was afraid you would
cut in and carry off the girl."

" Eh ! Craigengelt ? " said Bucklaw — " do you
really think so ? — but no, no ! — he is a devilish
deal prettier man than I am."

" Who — he ? " exclaimed the parasite — " he's as
black as the crook ; and for his size — he's a tall
fellow, to be sure — but give me a light, stout,
middle-sized "

" Plague on thee ! " said Bucklaw, interrupting
him, " and on me for listening to you ! — you would
say as much if I were hunch-backed. But as to
Ravenswood — he has kept no terms with me — I'll
keep none with him — if I can win this girl from
him, I ivill win her."

" Win her ? — 'sblood, you shall win her, point,
quint, and quatorze, my king of trumps — you shall
pi(|ue, repi([ue, and capot him."

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 289

'•' Prithee, stop thy gambling cant for one instant,"
said Bucklaw. " Things have come thus far, that I
have entertained the proposal of my kinswoman,
agreed to the terms of jointure, amount of fortune,
and so forth, and that the affair is to go forward
when Lady Ashton comes down, for she takes her
daughter and her son in her own hand. Now they
want me to send up a confidential person with some
writings."

" By this good wine, I'll ride to the end of the
world — the very gates of Jericho, and the judg-
ment-seat of Prester John, for thee ! " ejaculated the
Captain.

" V/hy, I believe you would do something for me,
and a great deal for yourself. Now, any one could
carry the writings ; but you will have a little more
to do. You must contrive to drop out before my
Lady Ashton, just as if it were a matter of little
consequence, the residence of Eavenswood at her hus-
band's house, and his close intercourse with Miss Ash-
ton ; and you may tell her, that all the country talks
of a visit from the Marquis of A , as it is sup-
posed, to make up the match betwixt Eavenswood
and her daughter. I should like to hear what she
says to all this ; for, rat me, if I have any idea of
starting for the plate at all if Eavenswood is to win
the race, and he has odds against me already."

" Never a bit — the wench has too much sense —
and in that belief I drink her health a third time ;
and, were time and place fitting, I would drink it on
bended knees, and he that would not pledge me, I
would make his guts garter his stockings."

" Hark ye, Craigengelt ; as you are going into tlie
society of women of rank," said Bucklaw, " I'll thank
you to forget your strange blackguard oaths aud

19

290 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

damme's — I'll write to them, though, that you are
a blunt untaught fellow."

"Ay, ay," replied Craigengelt; "a plain, blunt,
honest, downright soldier."

" Not too honest, nor too much of the soldier
neither; but such as thou art, it is my luck to
need thee, for I must have spurs put to Lady Ash-
ton's motions."

" I'll dash them up to the rowel-heads," said Craig-
engelt ; " she shall come here at the gallop, like a
cow chased by a whole nest of hornets, and her tail
twisted over her rump like a corkscrew."

" And hear ye, Craigie," said Bucklaw ; " your
boots and doublet are good enough to drink in, as
the man says in the play, but they are somewhat
too greasy for tea-table service — prithee, get thy-
self a little better rigged out, and here is to pay all
charges."

" Kay, Bucklaw — on my soul, man — you use me
ill — However," added Craigengelt, pocketing the
money, " if you will have me so far indebted to you,
I must be conforming."

" Well, horse and away ! " said the patron, " so
soon as you have got your riding livery in trim.
You may ride the black crop-ear — and, hark ye, I'll
make you a present of him to boot."

" I drink to the good luck of my mission," an-
swered the ambassador, " in a half-pint bumper."

" I thank ye, Craigie, and pledge you — I see
nothing against it but the father or the girl taking
a tantrum, and I am told the mother can wind
them both round her little finger. Take care not to
affront her with any of your Jacobite jargon."

" 0 ay, true — she is a whig, and a friend of old
Sail of Marlborough — thank my stars, I can hoist

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 291

any colours at a pinch. I have fought as hard un-
der John Churchill as ever I did under Dundee or
the Duke of Berwick."

" I verily believe you, Craigie," said the lord of
the mansion ; " but, Craigie, do you, pray, step
down to the cellar, and fetch us up a bottle of the
Burgundy, 1678 — it is in the fourth bin from the
right-hand turn — And I say, Craigie, you may
fetch up half-a-dozen whilst you are about it. —
Egad, w^e'U make a night on't ! "

CHAPTEE XXII.

And soon they spied the merry-men green,
And eke the coach and four.

Duke upon Duke.

Ckaigengelt set forth on his mission so soon as his
equipage was complete, prosecuted his journey with
all diligence, and accomplished his commission with
all the dexterity for which Bucklaw had given him
credit. As he arrived with credentials from Mr.
Hayston of Bucklaw, he was extremely welcome to
both ladies; and those who are prejudiced in favour
of a new acquaintance can, for a time at least, dis-
cover excellences in his very faults, and perfections
in his deficiencies. Although both ladies were
accustomed to good society, yet, being predeter-
mined to find out an agreeable and well-behaved
gentleman in Mr. Hayston's friend, they succeeded
wonderfully in imposing on themselves. It is true
that Craigengelt was now handsomely dressed, and
that was a point of no small consequence. But,
independent of outward show, his blackguard impu-
dence of address was construed into honourable
bluntness, becoming his supposed military profes-

294 TALES OF MY LANDLORD

sion ; his hectoring passed for courage, and his sauci-
ness for wit. Lest, however, any one should think
this a violation of probability, we must add, in
fairness to the two ladies, that their discernment
was greatly blinded, and their favour propitiated,
by the opportune arrival of Captain Craigengelt in
the moment when they were longing for a third
hand to make a party at tredrille, in which, as in
all games, whether of chance or skill, that worthy
person was a great proficient.

When he found himself established in favour, his
next point was how best to use it for the further-
ance of his patron's views. He found Lady Ash-
ton preposses-sed strongly in favour or the motion,
which Lady Blenkensop, partly from regard to hei
kinsman, partly from the spirit of match-making,
had not hesitated to propose to her; so that his task
was an easy one. Bucklaw, reformed from his pro-
digality, was just the sort of husband which she
desired to have for her Shepherdess of Lammer-
moor; and while the marriage gave her an easy
fortune, and a respectable country gentleman for
her husband. Lady Ashton was of opinion that her
destinies would be fully and most favourably
accomplished. It so chanced, also, that Buck-
law, among his new acquisitions, had gained the
management of a little political interest in a neigh-
bouring county, where the Douglas family origi-
nally held large possessions. It was one of the
})osom-hopes of Lady Ashton, that her eldest son,
Sholto, should represent this county in the Britisli
Parliament, and she saw this alliance with Buck-
law as a circumstance which might be hiyjhlv fav-
curable to her wishes.

Craigengelt, who in his way by no means wanted

THE BRIDE OF LAM.MERMOOR. 295

sagacity, no sooner discovered in what quarter the
wind of Lady Ash ton's wishes sate, than he trimmed
his course accordingly. " There was little to prevent
Bucklaw himself from sitting for the county — he
must carry the heat — must walk the course. Two
cousius-german — six more distant kinsmen, his
factor and his chamberlain, were all hollow votes
— and the Girnington interest had always carried,
betwixt love and fear, about as many more. But
Bucklaw cared no more about riding the first horse,
and that sort of thing, than he, Craigengelt, did about
a game at birkie — it was a pity his interest was
not in good guidance."

All this Lady Ashton drank in with willing and
attentive ears, resolving internally to be herself the
person who should take the management of the
political influence of her destined son-in-law, for
the benefit of her eldest born, Sholto, and all other
parties concerned.

When he found her ladyship thus favourably
disposed, the Captain proceeded, to use his em-
ployer's phrase, to set spurs to her resolution, by
hinting at the situation of matters at Ravenswood
Castle, the long residence which the heir of that
family had made with the Lord Keeper, and the
reports which (though he would be d — d ere he
gave credit to any of them) had been idly circu-
lated in the neighbourhood. It was not the Cap-
tain's cue to appear himself to be uneasy on the
subject of these rumours ; but he easily saw from
Lady Ashton's flushed cheek, hesitating voice, and
flashing eye, that she had caught the alarm which
he intended to communicate. She had not heard
from her husband so often or so regularly as she
thought him bound in duty to have written, and of

296 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

this very interesting intelligence, concerning his
visit to the Tower of Wolf's Crag, and the guest
whom, with such cordiality, he had received at
Eavenswood Castle, he had suffered his lady to re-
main altogether ignorant, until she now learned it
by the chance information of a stranger. Such con-
cealment approached, in her apprehension, to a mis-
prision, at least, of treason, if not to actual rebellion
against her matrimonial authority ; and in her in-
ward soul did she vow to take vengeance on the
Lord Keeper, as on a subject detected in medita-
ting revolt. Her indignation burned the more
fiercely, as she found herself obliged to suppress it
in presence of Lady Blenkensop, the kinswoman,
and of Craigengelt, the confidential friend of Buck-
law, of whose alliance she now became trebly
desirous, since it occurred to her alarmed imagina-
tion, that her husband might, in his policy or
timidity, prefer that of Eavenswood.

The Captain was engineer enough to discover
that the train was fired ; and therefore heard, in the
course of the same day, without the least surprise,
that Lady Ashton had resolved to abridge her visit
to Lady Blenkensop, and set forth with the peep
of morning on her return to Scotland, using all the
dispatch which the state of the roads, and the mode
of travelling, would possibly permit.

Unhappy Lord Keeper ! — little was he aware
what a storm was travelling towards him in all the
speed with which an old-fashioned coach and six-
could possibly achieve its journey. He, like Don
Gayferos, " forgot his lady fair and true," and was
only anxious about the expected visit of the Mar-
quis of A . Soothfast tidings had assured him

that this nobleman was at length, and without fail,

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 297

to honour his castle at one in the afternoon, being
a late dinner-hour ; and much was the bustle in
consequence of the annunciation. The Lord Keeper
traversed the chambers, held consultation with the
butler in the cellars, and even ventured, at the risk
of a demeU with a cook, of a spirit lofty enough to
scorn the admonitions of Lady Ashton herself, to
peep into the kitchen. Satisfied, at length, that
every thing was in as active a train of preparation
as was possible, he summoned Eavenswood and his
daughter to walk upon the terrace, for the purpose
of watching, from that commanding position, the
earliest symptoms of his lordship's approach. For
this purpose, with slow and idle step, he paraded
the terrace, which, flanked with a heavy stone bat-
tlement, stretched in front of the castle upon a level
with the first story ; while visitors found access
to the court by a projecting gate-way, the bartizan
or flat-leaded roof of which was accessible from the
terrace by an easy flight of low and broad steps.
The whole bore a resemblance partly to a castle,
partly to a nobleman's seat ; and though calculated,
in some respects, for defence, evinced that it had
been constructed under a sense of the power and
security of the ancient Lords of Eavenswood.

This pleasant walk commanded a beautiful and
extensive view. But what was most to our present
purpose, there were seen from the terrace two roads,
one leading from the east, and one from the west-
ward, which, crossing a ridge opposed to the emi-
nence on which the castle stood, at different angles,
gradually a])proached each other, until they joined
not far from the gate of the avenue. It was to the
westward approach that the Lord Keeper, from a
sort of fidgeting anxiety, his daughter, from com-

298 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

plaisance to him, and Eavenswood, though feeling
some symptoms of internal impatience, out of com-
plaisance to his daughter, directed their eyes to see
the precursors of the Marquis's approach.

These were not long of presenting themselves.
Two running footmen (r), ^ dressed in white, with
black jockey-caps, and long staffs in their hands,
headed the train ; and such was their agility, that
they found no difficulty in keeping the necessary
advance, which the etiquette of their station re-
quired, before the carriage and horsemen. Onward
they came at a long swinging trot, arguing un-
wearied speed in their long-breathed calling. Such
running footmen are often alluded to in old plays,
(I would particularly instance " Middleton's Mad
World my Masters,") and perhaps may be still re-
membered by some old persons in Scotland, as part
of the retinue of the ancient nobility when travel-
ling in full ceremony.^ Behind these glancing me-

1 See Editor's Notes at the end of the Volume. Wherever a
similar reference occurs, the reader will understand that the same
direction applies.

- Hereupon I, Jedediah Cleishbotham, crave leave to remark,
prima, which signifies, in the first place, that, having in vain
enquired at the Circulating Library in Gandercleugli, albeit it
aboundeth in similar vanities, for tiiis samyn Middleton and
his Mad World, it was at length shown unto me amongst other
ancient fooleries carefully compiled by one Dodsley, who, doubt-
less, hath his reward for neglect of precious time ; and having
misused so much of mine as was necessary for the purpose, I
therein found that a play-man is brought in as a footman, whom
a knight is made to greet facetiously witli the epithet of " linen
stocking, and three-score miles a-day."

Secundo, (which is secondly in the vernacular.) under Mr.
Pattieson's favour, some men not altogether so old as he would
represent them, do remember this species of menial, or forerun-
ner. In evidence of which, I, Jedediah Cleishbotham, though
mine eyes yet do me good service, remember me to have seen
one of this tribe clothed in white, and bearing a staff, who ran

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 299

teors, who footed it as if the Avenger of Blood had
been behind them, came a cloud of dust, raised by-
riders who preceded, attended, or followed, the
state-carriage of the Marquis.

The privilege of nobility, in those days, had some-
thing in it impressive on the imagination. The
dresses and liveries and number of their attendants,
their style of travelling, the imposing, and almost
warlike air of the armed men who surrounded them,
placed them far above the laird, who travelled with
his brace of footmen ; and as to rivalry from the
mercantile part of the community, these would as
soon have thought of imitating the state equipage
of the Sovereign. At present it is different ; and
I myself, Peter Pattieson, in a late journey to Edin-
buigh, had the honour, in the mail-coach phrase, to
" change a leg " with a peer of the realm. It was
not so in the days of which I write ; and the Mar-
quis's approach, so long expected in vain, now took
place in the full pomp of ancient aristocracy. Sir
William Ashton was so much interested in what he
beheld, and in considering the ceremonial of recep-
tion in case any circumstance had been omitted,
that he scarce heard his son Henry exclaim, " There
is another coach and six coming down the east
road, papa — can they both belong to the Marquis
of A ? "

At length, when the youngster had fairly com-
pelled his attention by pulling his sleeve,

daily before the state-coach of the umquhile John, Earl of
Hopeton. father of this Karl, Charles, that now is ; unto whom
it may be justly said, that Renown playeth the part of a run-
ning footman, or precursor ; and, as tlie poet sinn;eth —

" Mars standing; by asserts liis quarrel,

And Fame flies after with a laurel."

J. C.

300 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

He turned liis eves, and, as he turn'd, surveyed
An awfnl vision.

Sure enough, another coach and six, with four
servants or out-riders in attendance, Mas descend-
ing the hill from the eastward, at such a pace as
made it doubtful which of the carriages thus ap-
proaching from different quarters "would first reach
the gate at the extremity of the avenue. The one
coach was green, the other blue ; and not the green
and blue chariots in the Circus of Eome or Con-
stantinople excited more turmoil among the citizens
than the double apparition occasioned in the mind
of the Lord Keeper. We all remember the terrible
exclamation of the dying profligate, when a friend,
to destroy what he supposed the hypochondriac
idea of a spectre appearing in a certain shape at a
given hour, placed before him a person dressed up in
the manner he described. " Mon Dicu ! " said the
expiring sinner, who, it seems, saw both the real
and polygraph) c apparition — " il y en a deux ! "

The surprise of the Lord Keeper was scarcely
less unpleasing at the duplication of the expected
arrival; his mind misgave him strangely. There
was no neighbour who would have approached so
unceremoniously, at a time when ceremony was
held in such respect. It must be Lady Ashton,
said his conscience, and followed up the hint with
an anxious anticipation of the purpose of her sud-
den and unannounced return. He felt that he
was caught " in the manner." That the company
in which she had so unluckily surprised him was
likely to be highly distasteful to her, there was no
question ; and the only hope which remained for
him was her high sense of dignified propriety, which,
he trusted, might prevent a public explosion. But

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 301

so active were his doubts and fears, as altogether
to derange his purposed ceremonial for the recep-
tion of the Marquis.

These feelings of apprehension were not confined
to Sir William Ashton. "It is my mother — it is
my mother !" said Lucy, turning as pale as ashes,
and clasping her hands together as she looked at
Eavenswood.

" And if it be Lady Ashton," said her lover to
her in a low tone, " what can be the occasion of
such alarm ? — Surely the return of a lady to the
family from which she has been so long absent,
should excite other sensations than those of fear
and dismay."

"You do not know my mother," said Miss Ash-
ton, in a tone almost breathless with terror ; " what
will she say when she sees you in this place ! "

" My stay has been too long," said Eavenswood,
somewhat haughtily, " if her displeasure at my pre-
sence is likely to be so formidable. My dear Lucy,"
he resumed, in a tone of soothing encouragement,
" you are too childishly afraid of Lady Ashton ;
she is a woman of family — a lady of fashion — a
person who must know the world, and what is due
to her husband and her husband's guests."

Lucy shook her head ; and, as if her mother, still
at the distance of half a mile, could have seen and
scrutinized her deportment, she withdrew herself
from beside Eavenswood, and, taking her brother
Henry's arm, led him to a different part of the ter-
race. The Keeper also shuffled down towards the
portal of the great gate, without inviting Eavens-
wood to accompany him, and thus he remained
standing alone on the terrace, deserted and shunned,
as it were, by the inhabitants of the mansion.

302 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

This suited not the mood of one who was proud
in proportion to his poverty, and who thought that,
in sacrificing his deep-rooted resentments so far as
to become Sir William Ashton's guest, he conferred
a favour and received none. " I can forgive Lucy,"
he said to himself ; " she is young, timid, and con-
scious of an important engagement assumed without
her mother's sanction ; yet she should remember
with whom it has been assumed, and leave me no
reason to suspect that she is ashamed of her
choice. For the Keeper, sense, spirit, and expression
seem to have left his face and manner since he had
the first glimpse of Lady Ashton's carriage. I must
watch how this is to end ; and, if they give me
reason to think myself an unwelcome guest, my
visit is soon abridged."

With these suspicions floating on his mind, he
left the terrace, and, walking towards the stables of
the castle, gave directions that his horse should be
kept in readiness, in case he should have occasion
to ride abroad.

In the meanwhile the drivers of the two carriages,
the approach of which had occasioned so much dis-
may at the castle, had become aware of each other's
presence, as they approached upon diflerent lines to
the head of the avenue, as a common centre. Lady
Ashton's driver and postilions instantly received
orders to get foremost, if possible, her ladyship being
desirous of despatching her first interview with her
husband before the arrival of these guests, whoever
they might happen to be. On the other hand, the
coachman of the Marquis, conscious of his own dig-
nity and that of his master, and observing the rival
charioteer was mending his pace, resolved, like a
true brother of the whip, whether ancient or modern,

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 303

to vindicate his right of precedence. So that, to
increase the confusion of the Lord Keeper's under-
standing, he saw the short time which remained
for consideration abridged by the haste of the con-
tending coachmen, who, fixing their eyes sternly on
each other, and applying the lash smartly to their
horses, began to thunder down the descent with
emulous rapidity, while the horsemen who attended
them were forced to put on to a handgallop.

Sir William's only chance now remaining was
the possibility of an overturn, and that his lady or
visitor might break their necks. I am not aware
that he formed any distinct wish on the subject, but
I have no reason to think that his grief in either
case would have been altogether inconsolable. This
chance, however, also disappeared ; for Lady Ash-
ton, thoufrh insensible to fear, began to see the ridi-
cule of running a race with a visitor of distinction,
the goal being the portal of her own castle, and
commanded her coachman, as they approached the
avenue, to slacken his pace, and allow precedence
to the stranger's equipage ; a command which he
gladly obeyed, as coming in time to save his honour,
the horses of the Marquis's carriage being better,
or, at least, fresher than his own. He restrained
bis pace, therefore, and suffered the green coach
to enter the avenue, with all its retinue, which pass
it occupied with the speed of a whirlwind. The
Marquis's laced charioteer no sooner found the pas
d'avance was granted to him, than he resumed a
more deliberate pace, at which he advanced under
the embowering shade of the lofty elms, surrounded
by all the attendants ; while the carriage of Lady
Ashton followed, still more slowly, at some distance.

In the front of the castle, and beneath the portal

304 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

which admitted guests into the inner court, stood
Sir William Ashton, much perplexed in mind, his
younger son and daughter beside him, and in their
rear a train of attendants of various ranks, in and
out of livery. The nobility and gentry of Scotland,
at this period, were remarkable even to extrava-
gance for the number of their servants, whose ser-
vices were easily purchased in a country where men
were numerous beyond proportion to the means of
employing them.

The manners of a man, trained like Sir William
Ashton, are too much at his command to remain
long disconcerted with the most adverse concur-
rence of circumstances. He received the Marquis,
as he alighted from his equipage, with the usual
compliments of welcome ; and, as he ushered him
into the great hall, expressed his hope that his
journey had been pleasant. The Marquis was a
tall, well-made man, with a thoughtful and intelli-
gent countenance, and an eye, in which the fire of
ambition had for some years replaced the vivacity
of youth ; a bold, proud, expression of countenance,
yet chastened by habitual caution, and the desire
which, as the head of a party, he necessarily enter-
tained of acquiring popularity. He answered with
courtesy the courteous enquiries of the Lord Keeper,
and was formally presented to Miss Ashton, in
the course of which ceremony the Lord Keeper
gave the first symptom of what was chiefly occu-
pying his mind, by introducing his daughter as " his
wife. Lady Ashton."

Lucy blushed: the Marquis looked surprised at
the extremely juvenile appearance of his hostess,
and the Lord Keeper with difficulty rallied himself
so far as to explain. " I should have said my daugh-

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 305

ter, my lord ; but the truth is, that I saw Lady
Ashton's carriage enter the avenue shortly after
your lordship's, and "

" Make no apology, my lord," replied his noble
guest ; " let me entreat you will wait on your lady,
and leave me to cultivate Miss Ashton's acquaint-
ance. I am shocked my people should have taken
precedence of our hostess at her own gate ; but your
lordship is aware, that I supposed Lady Ashton was
still in the south. Permit me to beseech you will
wave ceremony, and hasten to welcome her."

This was precisely what the Lord Keeper longed
to do ; and he instantly profited by his lordship's
obliging permission. To see Lady Ashton, and
encounter the first burst of her displeasure in pri-
vate, might prepare her, in some degree, to receive
her unwelcome guests with due decorum. As her
carriage, therefore, stopped, the arm of the atten-
tive husband was ready to assist Lady Ashton in
dismounting. Looking as if she saw him not, she
put his arm aside, and requested that of Captain
Craigengelt, who stood by the coach with his laced
hat under his arm, having acted as cavaliere ser~
vente, or squire in attendance, during the journey.
Taking hold of this respectable person's arm as if
to support her, Lady Ashton traversed the court,
uttering a word or two by way of direction to the
servants, but not one to Sir William, who in vain
endeavoured to attract her attention, as he rather
followed than accompanied her into the hall, in
which they found the Marquis in close conversation
with the Master of Eavenswood : Lucy had taken
the first opportunity of escaping. There was em-
barrassment on every countenance except that of

the Marquis of A ; for even Craigengelt's im-

20

3o6 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

pudence was hardly able to veil his fear of Eavens-
wood, and the rest felt the awkwardness of the
position in which they were thus unexpectedly
placed.

After waiting a moment to be presented by Sir
William Ashton, the Marquis resolved to introduce
himself. " The Lord Keeper," he said, bowing to
Lady Ashton, " has just introduced to me his
daughter as his wife — he might very easily present
Lady Ashton as his daughter, so little does she
differ from what I remember her some years since.
— Will she permit an old acquaintance the privi-
lege of a guest? "

He saluted the lady with too good a grace to
apprehend a repulse, and then proceeded — " This,
Lady Ashton, is a peace-making visit, and there-
fore I presume to introduce my cousin, the young
Master of Eavenswood, to your favourable notice."

Lady Ashton could not choose but curtsy ; but
there was in her obeisance an air of haughtiness
approaching to contemptuous repulse. Eavenswood
could not choose but bow ; but his manner returned
the scorn with which he had been greeted.

" Allow me," she said, " to present to your lord-
ship my friend." Craigengelt, with the forward
impudence which men of his cast mistake for ease,
made a sliding bow to the Marquis, which he graced
by a flourish of his gold-laced hat. The lady turned
to her husband — " You and I, Sir William," she
said, and these were the first words she had ad-
dressed to him, " have acquired new acquaintances
since we parted — let me introduce the acquisition
I have made to mine — Captain Craigengelt."

Another bow, and another flourish of the gold-
laced hat, which was returned by the Lord Keeper

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 307

without intimation of former recognition, and with
that sort of anxious readiness, which intimated his
wish, that peace and amnesty should take place be-
twixt the contending parties, including the auxili-
aries on both sides. " Let me introduce you to
the Master of Eavenswood," said he to Captain
Craigengelt, following up the same amicable system.
But the Master drew up his tall form to the full
extent of his height, and without so much as look-
ing towards the person thus introduced to him, he
said, in a marked tone, " Captain Craigengelt and
I are already perfectly well acquainted with each
other."

" Perfectly — ■ perfectly," replied the Captain, in
a mumbling tone, like that of a double echo, and
with a flourish of his hat, the circumference of which
was greatly abridged, compared with those which
had so cordially graced his introduction to the Mar-
quis and the Lord Keeper.

Lockhard, followed by three menials, now en-
tered with wine and refreshments, which it was the
fashion to offer as a whet before dinner ; and when
they were placed before the guests. Lady Ashton
made an apology for withdrawing her husband from
them for some minutes upon business of special
import. The Mar(|uis, of course, requested her
ladyship would lay herself under no restraint ; and
Craigengelt, bolting with speed a second glass of
racy canary, hastened to leave the room, feeling no
great pleasure in the prospect of being left alone with
the Marquis of A and the Master of Eavens-
wood; the presence of the former holding him in
awe, and that of the latter in bodily terror.

Some arrangements about his horse and baggage
formed the pretext for his sudden retreat, in which

3o8 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

he persevered, although Lady Ashton gave Lockhard
orders to be careful most particularly to accom-
modate Captain Craigengelt with all the attendance
which he could possibly require. The Marquis and
the Master of Ravenswood were thus left to com-
municate to each other their remarks upon the
reception which they had met with, while Lady
Ashton led the way, and her lord followed some-
what like a condemned criminal, to her ladyship's
dressing-room.

So soon as the spouses had both entered, her
ladyship gave way to that fierce audacity of tem-
per, which she had with difficulty suppressed, out
of respect to appearances. She shut the door be-
hind the alarmed Lord Keeper, took the key out
of the spring-lock, and with a countenance which
years had not bereft of its haughty charms, and
eyes which spoke at once resolution and resentment,
she addressed her astounded husband in these
words : — " My lord, I am not greatly surprised at
the connexions you have been pleased to form dur-
ing my absence — they are entirely in conformity
with your birth and breeding ; and if I did expect
any thing else, I heartily own my error, and that I
merit, by having done so, the disappointment you
had prepared for me."

" My dear Lady Ashton — my dear Eleanor,"
said the Lord Keeper, " listen to reason for a mo-
ment, and I will convince you I have acted with
all the regard due to the dignity, as well as the
interest, of my family."

"To the interest of your family I conceive you
perfectly capable of attending," returned the indig-
nant lady, " and even to the dignity of your own
family also, as far as it requires any looking after

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOK. 309

— But as mine happens to be inextricably involved
with it, you will excuse me if I choose to give my
own attention so far as that is concerned."

" What would you have, Lady Ashton ? " said
the husband — " What is it that displeases you ?
Why is it, that on your return after so long an
absence, I am arraigned in this manner ? "

" Ask your own conscience. Sir William, what
has prompted you to become a renegade to your
political party and opinions, and led you, for what
I know, to be on the point of marrying your only
daughter to a beggarly Jacobite bankrupt, the inve-
terate enemy of your family to the boot."

" Why, what, in the name of common sense and
common civility, would you have me do, madam ? "
answered her husband — " Is it possible for me, with
ordinary decency, to turn a young gentleman out of
my house, who saved my daughter's life and my own,
but the other morning as it were ? "

" Saved your life ! I have heard of that story,"
said the lady — " the Lord Keeper was scared by a
dun cow, and he takes the young fellow who killed
her for Guy of Warwick — any butcher from Had-
dington may soon have an equal claim on your
hospitality."

"Lady Ashton," stammered the Keeper, "this
is intolerable — and when I am desirous, too, to
make you easy by any sacrifice — if you would but
tell me what you would be at."

" Go down to your guests," said the imperious
dame, " and make your apology to Ravenswood,
that the arrival of Captain Craigengelt and some
other friends, renders it impossible for you to offer
him lodgings at the castle — I expect young Mr.
Hayston of Bucklaw."

3IO TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

" Good heavens, madam ! " ejaculated her hus-
band— "Eavenswood to give place to Craigengelt,
a common gambler and an informer ! — it was all I
could do to forbear desiring the fellow to get out
of my house, and I was much surprised to see him
in your ladyship's train."

" Since you saw him there, you might be well
assured," answered this meek helpmate, " that he
was proper society. As to this Eavenswood, he
only meets with the treatment which, to my cer-
tain knowledge, he gave to a much-valued friend
of mine, who had the misfortune to be his guest
some time since. But take your resolution ; for,
if Eavenswood does not quit the house, I will."

Sir William Ashton paced up and down the
apartment in the most distressing agitation ; fear,
and shame, and anger contending against the habit-
ual deference he was in the use of rendering to his
lady. At length it ended, as is usual with timid
minds placed in such circumstances, in his adopting
a mezzo termine, a middle measure.

" I tell you frankly, madam, I neither can nor
will be guilty of the incivility you propose to the
Master of Eavenswood — he has not deserved it at
my hand. If you will be so unreasonable as to in-
sult a man of qualiv^y under your own roof, I cannot
prevent you ; but I will not at least be the agent in
such a preposterous proceeding."

" You will not ? " asked the lady.

" No, by heavens, madam I " her husband replied ;
" ask me any thing congruent witli common decency,
as to drop his acquaintance by degrees, or the like
— but to bid him leave my house is what I will
not, and cannot consent to."

" Then the task of supporting the honour of the

THE BKIDE OF LAMMERMOOK. 311

family will fall on me, as it has often done before,"
said the lady.

She sat down, and hastily wrote a few lines.
The Lord Keeper made another effort to prevent her
taking a step so decisive, just as she opened the
door to call her female attendant from the ante-
room. " Think what you are doing, Lady Ashton
— you are making a mortal enemy of a young man,
who is like to have the means of harming us "

" Did you ever know a Douglas who feared an
enemy ? " answered the lady contemptuously.

" Ay, but he is as proud and vindictive as an
hundred Douglasses, and an hundred devils to boot.
Think of it for a night only."

"Not for another moment," answered the -lady;
— " here, Mrs. Patullo, give this billet to young
Eavenswood."

" To the Master, madam ? " said ^Irs. Patullo.

"Ay, to the Master, if you call him so."

" I wash my hands of it entirely," said the
Keeper; "and I shall go down into the garden, and
see that Jardine gathers the winter fruit for the
dessert."

" Do so," said the lady, looking after him with
glances of infinite contempt ; " and thank God that
you leave one behind you as fit to protect the hon-
our of the family, as you are to look after pippins
and pears."

The Lord Keeper remained long enough in the
garden to give her ladyship's mind time to explode,
and to let, as he thought, at least the first violence
of Ravenswood's displeasure blow over. When he

entered the hall, he found the Marquis of A

giving orders to some of his attendants. He seemed
in high displeasure, and interrupted an apology

312 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

which Sir "WilHam had commenced, for having left
his lordship alone.

" I presume, Sir William, you are no stranger to
this singular billet with which my kinsman of
Havens wood " (an emphasis on the word my) " has
been favoured by your lady — and, of course, that
you are prepared to receive my adieus — My kins-
man is already gone, having thought it unnecessary
to offer any on his part, since all former civilities
had been cancelled by this singular insult."

" I protest, my lord," said Sir William, holding
the billet in his hand, " I am not privy to the con-
tents of this letter. I know Lady Ashton is a
warm-tempered and prejudiced woman, and I am
sincerely sorry for any offence that has been given
or taken ; but I hope your lordship will consider
that a lady "

" Should bear herself towards persons of a certain
rank with the breeding of one," said the Marquis,
completing the half-uttered sentence.

" True, my lord," said the unfortunate Keeper ;
" but Lady Ashton is still a woman "

" And as such, methinks," said the Marquis, again
interrupting him, " should be taught the duties
which correspond to her station. But here she
comes, and I will learn from her own mouth the
reason of this extraordinary and unexpected affront
offered to my near relation, while both he and I
were her ladyship's guests."

Lady Ashton accordingly entered the apartment
at this moment. Her dispute with Sir William, and
a subsequent interview with her daughter, had not
prevented her from attending to the duties of her
toilette. She appeared in full dress ; and, from the
character of her countenance and manner, well be-

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 313

came the splendour with which ladies of quality
then appeared on such occasions.

The Marquis of A bowed haughtily, and she

returned the salute with equal pride and distance of
demeanour. He then took from the passive hand
of Sir William Ashton the billet he had given him
the moment before he approached the lady, and was
about to speak, when she interrupted him. " I per-
ceive, my lord, you are about to enter upon an un-
pleasant subject. I am sorry any such should have
occurred at this time, to interrupt, in the slightest
degree, the respectful reception due to your lord-
ship — but so it is. — Mr. Edgar Eavenswood, for
whom I have addressed the billet in your lordship's
hand, has abused the hospitality of this family, and
Sir William Ashton's softness of temper, in order to
seduce a young person into engagements without
her parents' consent, and of which they never can
approve."

Both gentlemen answered at once, — " My kins-
man is incapable," said the Lord Marqviis.

" I am confident that my daughter Lucy is still
more incapable " said the Lord Keeper.

Lady Ashton at once interrupted, and replied to
them both. — " My Lord Marquis, your kinsman, if
Mr. Eavenswood has the honour to be so, has made
the attempt privately to secure the affections of this
young and inexperienced girl. Sir William Ashton,
your daughter has been simple enougli to give more
encouragement than she ought to have done to so
very improper a suitor."

"And I think, madam," said the Lord Keeper,
losing his accustomed temper and patience, " that if
you had nothing better to tell us, you had better
have kept this family secret to yourself also."

314 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

" You will pardon me, Sir William," said the lady,
calmly; "the noble Marquis has a right to know
the cause of the treatment I have found it necessary
to use to a gentleman whom he calls his blood-
relation."

" It is a cause," muttered the Lord Keeper, " which
has emerged since the effect has taken place ; for, if
it exists at all, I am sure she knew nothing of it
when her letter to Ravenswood was written."

" It is tlie first time that I have heard of this,"
said the Marquis ; " but since your ladyship has
tabled a subject so delicate, permit me to say, that
my kinsman's birth and connexions entitled him to
a patient hearing, and at least a civil refusal, even
in case of his being so ambitious as to raise his eyes
to the daughter of Sir "William Ashton."

" You will recollect, my lord, of what blood Miss
Lucy Ashton is come by the mother's side," said
the lady.

"I do remember your descent — from a younger
branch of the house of Angus," said the Marquis —
" and your ladyship — forgive me, lady — ought not
to forget that the Ravenswoods have thrice inter-
married with the main-stem. Come, madam — I
know how matters stand — old and long-fostered
prejudices are difficult to get over — I make every
allowance for them — I ought not, and I would not
otherwise have suffered my kinsman to depart alone,
expelled, in a manner, from this house — but 1 had
hopes of being a mediator. I am still unwilling
to leave you in anger — and shall not set forward
till after noon, as 1 rejoin the Master of Eavens-
wood upon the road a few miles from hence. Let
us talk over this matter more coolly."

" It is what I anxiously desire, my lord," said

THE BRIDE OF LAMMEHMOOR. 315

Sir .William Ashton, eagerly. " Lady Asliton, we

will not permit my Lord of A to leave us in

displeasure. We must compel him to tarry dinner
at the castle."

" The castle," said the lady, " and all that it con-
tains, are at the command of the Marquis, so long
as he chooses to honour it with his residence ; but
touching the farther discussion of this disagreeable
topic "

" Pardon me, good madam," said the Marquis ;
"but I cannot allow you to express any hasty reso-
lution on a subject so important. I see that more
company is arriving ; and since I have the good
fortune to renew my former acquaintance with
Lady Ashton, I hope she will give me leave to
avoid perilling what I prize so highly upon any
disagreeable subject of discussion — at least, till we
have talked over more pleasant topics."

The lady smiled, curtsied, and gave her hand to
the Marquis, by whom, with all the formal gallantry
of the time, which did not permit the guest to tuck
the lady of the house under the arm, as a rustic
does his sweetheart at a wake, she was ushered to
the eating-room.

Here they were joined by Bucklaw, Craigengelt,
and other neighbours, whom the Lord Keeper had

previously invited to meet the Marquis of A .

An apology, founded upon a slight indisposition,
was alleged as an excuse for the absence of Miss
Ashton, whose seat appeared unoccupied. The
entertainment was splendid to profusion, and was
protracted till a late hour.

CHAPTEE XXIII.

Such was our fallen father's fate,

Yet better than mine own ;
He shared his exile with his mate,

I'm banish'd forth alone.

AValleb.

I WILL not attempt to describe the mixture of indig-
nation and regret with which Eavenswood left the
seat which had belonged to his ancestors. The
terms in which Lady Ashton's billet was couched
rendered it impossible for him, without being defi-
cient in that spirit of which he perhaps had too
much, to remain an instant longer within its walls.
The Marquis, who had his share in the affront, was,
nevertheless, still willing to make some efforts at
conciliation. He therefore suffered his kinsman to
depart alone, making him promise, however, that
he would wait for him at the small inn called the
Tod's-hole, situated, as our readers may be pleased
to recollect, half way betwixt Eavenswood Castle
and Wolf's Crag, and about five Scottish miles dis-
tant from each. Here the Marquis proposed to join
the Master of Eavenswood, either that night or the
next morning. His own feelings woukl have in-
duced him to have left the castle directly, but he
was loath to forfeit, without at least one effort, the
advantages which he had proposed from his visit to
the Lord Keeper ; and the Master of Eavenswood
was, even in the very heat of his resentment, un-

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 3' 7

willing to foreclose any chance of reconciliation
which might arise out of the partiality which Sir
William Ashton had shown towards him, as well
as the intercessory arguments of his noble kins-
man. He himself departed without a moment's
delay, farther than was necessary to make this
arrangement.

At first he spurred his horse at a quick pace
through an avenue of the park, as if, by rapidity of
motion, he could stupify the confusion of feelings
with which he was assailed. But as the road grew
wilder and more sequestered, and when the trees
had hidden the turrets of the castle, he gradually
slackened his pace, as if to indulge the painful re-
flections which he had in vain endeavoured to
repress. The path in which he found himself led
him to the Mermaiden's Fountain, and to the cot-
tage of Alice ; and the fatal influence which super-
stitious belief attached to the former spot, as well
as the admonitions whicli had been in vain offered
to him by the inhabitant of the latter, forced them-
selves upon his memory. " Old saws speak truth,"
he said to himself ; " and the Mermaiden's Well
has indeed witnessed the last act of rashness of the
heir of Ravenswood. — Alice spoke well," he con-
tinued, " and I am in the situation which she fore-
told— or rather, I am more deeply dishonoured —
not the dependant and ally of the destroyer of my
father's house, as the old sibyl presaged, but the
degraded wretch, who has aspired to hold that
subordinate character, and has been rejected with
disdain."

We are bound to tell the tale as we have received
it ; and, considering the distance of the time, and
propensity of those tlirough whose mouths it has

31 8 TALES OF MY LANDLORD

passed to the marvellous, this could not be called a
Scottish story, unless it manifested a tinge of Scot-
tish superstition. As Eavenswood approached the
solitary fountain, he is said to have met with the
following singular adventure : — His horse, which
was moving slowly forvrard, suddenly interrupted
its steady and composed pace, snorted, reared, and,
though urged by the spur, refused to proceed, as if
some object of terror had suddenly presented itself.
On looking to the fountain, Eavenswood discerned
a female figure, dressed in a white, or rather greyish
mantle, placed on the very spot on which Lucy
Ashton had reclined while listening to the fatal
tale of love. His immediate impression was, that
she had conjectured by which path he would tra-
verse the park on his departure, and placed herself
at this well-known and sequestered place of rendez-
vous, to indulge her own sorrow and his in a parting
inter\aew. In this belief he jumped from his horse,
and, making its bridle fast to a tree, walked hastily
towards the fountain, pronouncing eagerly, yet under
his breath, the words, " Miss Ashton ! — Lucy ! "

The figure turned as he addressed it, and displayed
to his wondering eyes the features, not of Lucy Ash-
ton, but of old blind Alice. The singularity of her
dress, which rather resembled a shroud than the
garment of a living woman — the appearance of her
person, larger, as it struck him, than it usually
seemed to be — above all, the strange circumstance
of a blind, infirm, and decrepit person being found
alone and at a distance from her habitation, (con-
siderable, if her infirmities be taken into account,)
combined to impress him with a feeling of wonder
approaching to fear. As he approached, she arose
slowly from her seat, held her shrivelled hand up

THE BRIDE OE LAMMERMOOR. 319

as if to prevent his coming more near, and her
withered lips moved fast, although no sound issued
from them. Eavenswood stopped ; and as, after a
moment's pause, he again advanced towards her,
Alice, or her apparition, moved or glided back-
wards towards the thicket, still keeping her face
turned towards him. The trees soon hid the form
from his sight ; and, yielding to the strong and ter-
rific impression that the being which he had seen
was not of this world, the Master of Eavenswood
remained rooted to the ground whereon he had
stood when he caught his last view of her. At
length, summoning up his courage, he advanced to
the spot on which the figure had seemed to be
seated ; but neither was there pressure of the grass,
nor any other circumstance, to induce him to believe
that what he had seen was real and substantial.

Full of those strange thoughts and confused ap-
prehensions which awake in the bosom of one who
conceives he has witnessed some preternatural ap-
pearance, the Master of Eavenswood walked back
towards his horse, frequently however looking be-
hind him, not without apprehension, as if expecting
that the vision would re-appear. But the apparition,
whether it was real, or whether it was the creation
of a heated and agitated imagination, returned not
again ; and he found his horse sweating and terri-
fied, as if experiencing that agony of fear, with
which the presence of a supernatural being is sup-
posed to agitate the brute creation. Tlie Master
mounted, and rode slowly forward, soothing his
steed from time to time, while the animal seemed
internally to shrink and shudder, as if expecting
some new object of fear at the opening of every
glade. The rider, after a moment's consideration,

320 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

resolved to investigate the matter further. " Can my
eyes have deceived me," he said, " and deceived me
for such a space of time ? — Or are this woman's in-
firmities but feigned, in order to excite compassion ?

— And even then, her motion resembled not that
of a living and existing person. Must I adopt the
popular creed, and think that the unhappy being
has formed a league with the powers of darkness ?

— I am determined to be resolved — I will not
brook imposition even from my own eyes."

In this uncertainty he rode up to the little wicket
of Alice's garden. Her seat beneath the birch- tree
was vacant, though the day was pleasant, and the
sun was high. He approached the hut, and heard
from within the sobs and wailing of a female. No
answer was returned when he knocked, so that, after
a moment's pause, he lifted the latch and entered. It
was indeed a house of solitude and sorrow. Stretched
upon her miserable pallet lay the corpse of the last
retainer of the house of Ravenswood, who still abode
on their paternal domains ! Life had but shortly de-
parted ; and the little girl, by whom she had been
attended in her last moments, was wringing her
hands and sobbing, betwixt childish fear and sorrow,
over the body of her mistress.

The Master of Ravenswood had some difficulty to
compose the terrors of the poor child, whom his un-
expected appearance had at first rather appalled than
comforted ; and when he succeeded, the first expres-
sion which the girl used intimated that "he had
come too late." Upon enquiring the meaning oi
this expression, he learned that the deceased, upon
the first attack of the mortal agony, had sent a
peasant to the castle to beseech an interview of the
Master of Ravenswood, and had expressed the utmost

THE Arl'AKl 1 lU.N.— Uiawii by 11. JUcbelli-Kiicliurii.

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 321

impatience for his return. But the messengers of
the poor are tardy and negligent : the fellow had not
reached the castle, as was afterwards learned, until
Eavenswood had left it, and had then found too
much amusement among the retinue of the stran-
gers to return in any haste to the cottage of Alice.
Meantime her anxiety of mind seemed to increase
with the agony of her body ; and, to use the phrase
of Babie, her only attendant, " she prayed powerfully
that she might see her master's son once more, and
renew her warning." She died just as the clock in
the distant village tolled one ; and Eavenswood re-
membered, with internal shuddering, that he had
heard the chime sound through the wood just be-
fore he had seen what he was now much disposed to
consider as the spectre of the deceased.

It was necessary, as well from his respect to the
departed as in common humanity to her terrified
attendant, that he should take some measures to
relieve the girl from her distressing situation. The
deceased, he understood, had expressed a desire to
be buried in a solitary churchyard, near the little
inn of the Tod's-hole, called the Hermitage, or more
commonly Armitage, in which lay interred some of
the Eavenswood family, and many of their followers.
Eavenswood conceived it his duty to gratify this
predilection, so commonly found to exist among the
Scottish peasantry, and dispatched Babie to the
neighbouring village to procure the assistance of
some females, assuring her that, in the meanwhile,
he would himself remain with the dead body, which,
as in Thessaly of old, it is accounted highly unfit to
leave without a watch.

Thus, in the course of a quarter of an hour or
little more, he found himself sitting a solitary guard
21

322 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

over the inanimate corse of her, whose dismissed
spirit, unless his eyes had strangely deceived him,
had so recently manifested itself before him. Not-
withstanding his natural courage, the Master was
considerably affected by a concurrence of circum-
stances so extraordinary. " She died expressing
her eager desire to see me. Can it be, then," —
was his natural course of reflection — " can strong
and earnest wishes, formed during the last agony
of nature, survive its catastrophe, surmount the
awful bounds of the spiritual world, and place be-
fore us its inhabitants in the hues and colouring of
life ? — And why was that manifested to the eye
which could not unfold its tale to the ear ? — and
wherefore should a breach be made in the laws of
nature, yet its purpose remain unknown ? Vain
questions, which only death, when it shall make me
like the pale and withered form before me, can ever
resolve."

He laid a cloth, as he spoke, over the lifeless face,
upon whose features he felt unwilling any longer
to dwell. He then took his place in an old carved
oaken chair, ornamented with his own armorial
bearings, which Alice had contrived to appropriate
to her own use in the pillage which took place
among creditors, officers, domestics, and messen-
gers of the law, when his father left Eavenswood
Castle for the last time. Thus seated, he banished,
as much as he could, the superstitious feelings
which the late incident naturally inspired. His own
were sad enough, without the exaggeration of super-
natural terror, since he found himself transferred
from the situation of a successful lover of Lucy
Ashton, and an honoured and respected friend of
her father, into the melancholy and solitary guard-

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 323

ian of the abandoned and forsaken corse of a com-
mon pauper.

He was relieved, however, from his sad office
sooner than he could reasonably have expected, con-
sidering the distance betwixt the hut of the deceased
and the village, and the age and infirmities of three
old women, who came from thence, in military
phrase, to relieve guard upon the body of the de-
funct. On any other occasion the speed of these
reverend sibyls would have been much more mod-
erate, for the first was eighty years of age and
upwards, the second was paralytic, and the third
lame of a leg from some accident. But the burial
duties rendered to the deceased, are, to the Scot-
tish peasant of either sex, a labour of love. I know
not whether it is from the temper of the people,
grave and enthusiastic as it certainly is, or from
the recollection of the ancient Catholic opinions,
when the funeral rites were always considered as a
period of festival to the living ; but feasting, good
cheer, and even inebriety, were, and are, the fre-
quent accompaniments of a Scottish old-fashioned
burial. What the funeral feast, or dirgie (s), as it is
called, was to the men, the gloomy preparations of
the dead body for the cof&n were to the women.
To straight the contorted limbs upon a board used
for that melancholy purpose, to array the corpse in
clean linen, and over that in its woollen shroud, were
operations committed always to the old matrons of
the village, and in which they found a singular and
gloomy delight.

The old women paid the Master their salutations
with a ghastly smile, which reminded him of the
meeting betwixt Macbeth and the witches on the
blasted heath of Forres. He gave them some money,

324 TALES or MY LANDLORD.

and recommended to them the charge of the dead
body of their contemporary, an office which they
willingly undertook ; intimating to him at the same
time that he must leave the hut, in order that they
might begin their mournful duties. Ravenswood
readily agreed to depart, only tarrying to recom-
mend to them due attention to the body, and to
receive information where he was to find the sex-
ton, or beadle, who had in charge the deserted
churchyard of the Armitage, in order to prepare
matters for the reception of old Alice in the place
of repose which she had selected for herself.

"Ye'll no be pinched to find out Johnie Mort-
sheugh," said the elder sibyl, and still her withered
cheek bore a grisly smile — " he dwells near the
Tod's-hole, an house of entertainment where there
has been mony a blithe birling — for death and
drink-draining are near neighbours to ane anither."

" Ay ! and that's e'en true, cummer," said the
lame hag, propping herself with a crutch which
supported the shortness of her left leg, " for I mind
when the father of this Master of Eavenswood that
is now standing before us, sticked young Blackball
with his whinger, for a wrang word said ower their
wine, or brandy, or what not — he gaed in as light
as a lark, and he came out wi' his feet foremost. I
was at the winding of the corpse ; and when the
bluid was washed off, he was a bonny bouk of man's
body."

It may be easily believed that this ill-timed
anecdote hastened the Master's purpose of quitting
a company so evil-omened and so odious. Yet,
while walking to the tree to which his horse was
tied, and busying himself with adjusting the girths
of the saddle, he could not avoid hearing, through

TflE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 325

the hedge of the little garden, a conversation re-
specting himself, betwixt the lame woman and the
octogenarian sibyl. The pair had hobbled into the
garden to gather rosemary, southernwood, rue, and
other plants proper to be strewed upon the body,
and burned by way of fumigation in the chim-
ney of the cottage. The paralytic wretch, almost
exhausted by the journey, was left guard upon the
corpse, lest witches or fiends might play their sport
with it.

The following low croaking dialogue was neces-
sarily overheard by the Master of Ravenswood : —

"That's a fresh and full-grown hemlock, Annie
Winnie — mony a cummer lang syne wad hae
sought nae better horse to flee over hill and how,
through mist and moonlight, and light down in the
King of France's cellar."

" Ay, cummer ! but the very deil has turned as
hard-hearted now as the Lord Keeper, and the grit
folk that hae breasts like whin-stane. They prick
us and they pine us, and they pit us on the pinny-
winkles for witches ; and, if I say my prayers back-
wards ten times ower, Satan will never gie me
amends o' them."

" Did ye ever see the foul thief ? " asked her
neighbour.

" Na ! " replied the other spokeswoman ; " but I
trow I hae dreamed of him mony a time, and I
think the day will come they will burn me for't. —
But ne'er mind, cummer ! we hae this dollar of the
Master's, and we'll send doun for bread and for
yill, and tobacco, and a drap brandy to burn, and a
wee pickle saft sugar — and be there deil, or nae
deil, lass, we'll hae a merry night o't."

Here her leathern chops uttered a sort of cack-

326 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

ling ghastly laugh, resembling, to a certain degree,
the cry of the screech-owL

" He's a frank man, and a free-handed man, the
Master," said Annie Winnie, " and a comely per-
sonage — broad in the shouthers, and narrow around
the lungies — he wad mak a bonny corpse — I wad
like to hae the streaking and winding o' him."

" It is written on his brow, Annie Winnie," re-
turned the octogenarian, her companion, " that hand
of woman, or of man either, will never straught him
— dead-deal will never be laid on his back — make
you your market of that, for I hae it frae a sure
hand."

" Will it be his lot to die on the battle-ground
then, Ailsie Gourlay ? — Will he die by the sword
or the ball, as his forbears hae dune before him,
mony ane o' them ? "

"Ask nae mair questions about it — he'll no be
graced sae far," replied the sage.

" I ken ye are wiser than ither folk, Ailsie Gour-
lay — But wha tell'd ye this ? "

" Fashna your thumb about that, Annie Winnie,"
answered the sibyl — "I hae it frae a hand sure
eneugh."

" But ye said ye never saw the foul thief," reit-
erated her inquisitive companion.

" I hae it frae as sure a hand," said Ailsie, " and
frae them that spaed his fortune before the sark
gaed ower his head."

" Hark ! I hear his horse's feet riding aff," said
the other ; " they dinna sound as if good luck was
wi' them."

" Mak haste, sirs," cried the paralytic hag from
the cottage, " and let us do what is needfu', and
say what is fitting ; for, if the dead corpse binna

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 327

straughted, it will giru and thraw, and that will
fear the best 0' us."

Eavenswood was now out of hearing. He de-
spised most of the ordinary prejudices about witch-
craft, omens, and vaticination, to which his age and
country still gave such implicit credit, that to ex-
press a doubt of them, was accounted a crime equal
to the unbelief of Jews or Saracens ; he knew also
that the prevailing belief concerning witches, oper-
ating upon the hypochondriac habits of those
whom age, infirmity, and poverty rendered liable to
suspicion, and enforced by the fear of death, and
the pangs of the most cruel tortures, often extorted
those confessions which encumber and disgrace the
criminal records of Scotland during the seventeenth
century. But the vision of that morning, whether
real or imaginary, had impressed his mind with a
superstitious feeling which he in vain endeavoured
to shake off. The nature of the business which
awaited him at the little inn, called Tod's-hole,
where he soon after arrived, was not of a kind to
restore his spirits.

It was necessary he should see Mortsheugh, the
sexton of the old burial-ground at Armitage, to ar-
range matters for the funeral of Alice ; and as the
man dwelt near the place of her late residence, the
Master, after a slight refreshment, walked towards
the place where the body of Alice was to be depos-
ited. It was situated in the nook formed by the
eddying sweep of a stream, which issued from the
adjoining hills. A rude cavern in an adjacent rock,
which, in the interior, was cut into the shape of a
cross, formed the hermitage, where some Saxon
saint had in ancient times done penance, and given
name to the place. The rich Abbey of Colding-

328 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

hame had, in latter days, established a chapel in
the neighbourhood, of which no vestige was now
visible, though the churchyard which surrounded it
was still, as upon the present occasion, used for the
interment of particular persons. One or two shat-
tered yew-trees still grew within the precincts of
that which had once been holy ground. Warriors
and barons had been buried there of old, but their
names were forgotten, and their monuments demo-
lished. The only sepulchral memorials which re-
mained, were the upright headstones which mark
the graves of persons of inferior rank. The abode
of the sexton was a solitary cottage adjacent to the
ruined wall of the cemetery, but so low, that, with
its thatch, which nearly reached the ground, cov-
ered with a thick crop of grass, fog, and house-leeks,
it resembled an overgrown grave. On enquiry, how-
ever, Ravenswood found that the man oi the last
mattock was absent at a bridal, being fiddler as well
as grave-digger to the vicinity. He therefore re-
tired to the little inn, leaving a message that early
next morning he would again call for the person,
whose double occupation connected him at once
with the house of mourning and the house of
feasting.

An outrider of the Marquis arrived at Tod's-hole
shortly after, with a message, intimating that, his
master would join Eavenswood at that place on the
following morning ; and the Master, who would
otherwise have proceeded to his old retreat at
Wolf's Crag, remained there accordingly, to give
meeting to his noble kinsman.

CHAPTER XXIV.

Hamlet. Has this fellow no feeling of his business ? he sings at

grave-making.
Horatio. Custom hath made it in him a property of easiness.
Hamlet. 'Tis e'en so: the hand of little employment hath the

daintier sense.

Hamlet, Act V. Scene I.

The sleep of Eavenswood was broken by ghastly
and agitating visions, and his waking intervals dis-
turbed by melancholy reflections on the past, and
painful anticipations of the future. He was per-
haps the only traveller who ever slept in that mis-
erable kennel without complaining of his lodgings,
or feeling inconvenience from their deficiencies. It
is when "the mind is free the body's delicate."
Morning, however, found the Master an early riser,
in hopes that the fresh air of the dawn might afford
the refreshment which night had refused him. He
took his way toward the solitary burial-ground,
which lay about half a mile from the inn.

The thin blue smoke, which already began to curl
upward, and to distinguish the cottage of the living
from the habitation of the dead, apprized him that
its inmate had returned and was stirring. Accord-
ingly, on entering the little churchyard, he saw
the old man labouring in a half-made grave. My
destiny, thought Eavenswood, seems to lead me to
scenes of fate and of death ; but these are childish
thoughts, and they shall not master me. I will not
again suffer my imagination to beguile my senses. —

330 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

The old man rested on his spade as the Master
approached him, as if to receive his commands ; and
as he did not immediately speak, the sexton opened
the discourse in his own way.

"Ye will be a wedding customer, sir, I'se war-
rant ? "

" What makes you think so, friend ? " replied the
Master.

" I live by twa trades, sir," replied the blithe old
man ; " fiddle, sir, and spade ; filling the world, and
emptying of it; and I suld ken baith cast of cus-
tomers by head-mark in thirty years' practice."

"You are mistaken, however, this morning," re-
plied Eavenswood.

" Am I ? " said the old man, looking keenly at
him, " troth and it may be ; since,- for as brent as
your brow is, there is something sitting upon it this
day, that is as near akin to death as to wedlock.
Weel, weel; the pick and shovel are as ready to
your order as bow and fiddle."

"I wish you," said Eavenswood, "to look after
the decent interment of an old woman, Alice Gray,
who lived at the Craig-foot in Eavenswood Park."

" Alice Gray ! blind Alice ! " said the sexton ;
" and is she gane at last ? that's another jow of the
bell to bid me be ready. I mind when Habbie Gray
brought her down to this land ; a likely lass she
was then, and looked ower her southland nose at us
a'. I trow her pride got a downcome. And is she
e'en gane ? "

" She died yesterday," said Eavenswood ; " and
desired to be buried here, beside her husband ; you
know where he lies, no doubt ? "

"Ken where he lies?" answered the sexton, with
national indirection of response, " I ken whar a'

THE 13RIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 331

body lies, that lies here. But ye were speaking o'
her grave? — Lord help us — it's no an ordinar grave
that will hand her in, if a's true that folk said of
Alice in her auld days ; and if I gae to six feet
deep, — and a warlock's grave shouldna be an inch
mair ebb, or her ain witch cummers would soon
whirl her out of her shroud for a' their auld ac-
quaintance — and be't six feet, or be't three, wha's
to pay the making o't, I pray ye ? "

" I will pay that, my friend, and all other reason-
able charges."

" Eeasonable charges ? " said the sexton ; " ou,
there's grund-mail — and bell-siller — (though the
bell's broken nae doubt) — and the kist — and my
day's wark — and my bit fee — and some brandy
and yill to the drigie — I am no thinking that you
can inter her, to ca' decently, under saxteen pund
Scots."

"There is the money, my friend," said Eavens-
wood, " and something over. Be sure you know
the grave."

"Ye'll be ane 0' her English relations, I'se war-
rant," said the hoary man of skulls ; " I hae heard
she married far below her station ; it was very
right to let her bite on the bridle when she was
living, and it's very right to gie her a decent burial
now she's dead, for that's a matter 0' credit to your-
sell rather than to her. Folk may let their kindred
shift for themsells when they are alive, and can
bear the burden of their ain misdoings ; but it's an
unnatural thing to let them be buried like dogs,
when a' the discredit gangs to the kindred — what
kens the dead corpse about it ? "

" You would not have people neglect their rela-
tions on a bridal occasion neither ? " said Eavens-

332 TALES or MY LANDLORD.

wood, who was amused with the professional
limitation of the grave-digger's philanthropy.

The old man cast up his sharp grey eyes with a
shrewd smile, as if he understood the jest, but in-
stantly continued, with his former gravity, — " Bri-
dals — wha w^ad neglect bridals, that had ony regard
for plenishing the earth ? To be sure, they suld be
celebrated with all manner of good cheer, and
meeting of friends, and musical instruments, harp,
sackbut, and psaltery ; or gude fiddle and pipes,
when these auld-warld instruments of melody are
hard to be compassed."

" The presence of the fiddle, I daresay," replied
Eavenswood, " would atone for the absence of all
the others."

The sexton again looked sharply up at him, as
he answered, " Xae doubt — nae doubt — if it were
weel played ; — but yonder," he said, as if to change
the discourse, "is Halbert Gray's lang hame, that
ye were speering after, just the third bourock be-
yond the muckle through-stane that stands on sax
legs yonder, abune some ane of the Eavenswoods ;
for there is mony of their kin and followers here,
deil lift them ! though it isna just their main
burial-place."

" They are no favourites, then, of yours, these
Eavenswoods ? " said the Master, not much pleased
with the passing benediction which was thus be-
stowed on his family and name.

"I kenna wha should favour them," said the
grave-digger ; " when they had lands and power,
they were ill guides of them baith, and now their
head's down, there's few care how lang they may
be of lifting it again."

" Indeed ! " said Eavenswood ; " I never heard

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 333

that this unhappy family deserved ill-will at the
hands of their country. I grant their poverty — if
that renders them contemptible."

" It will gang a far way till't," said the sexton
of Hermitage, " ye may tak my word for that — at
least, I ken naething else that suld mak myself con-
temptible, and folk are far frae respecting me as
they wad do if I lived in a twa-lofted sclated house.
But as for the Eavenswoods, I hae seen three gen-
erations of them, and deil ane to mend other."

" I thought they had enjoyed a fair character in
the country," said their descendant.

" Character ! Ou, ye see, sir," said the sexton,
" as for the auld gude-sire body of a lord, I lived on
his land when I was a swanking young chield, and
could hae blawn the trumpet wi' ony body, for I
had wind eneugh then — and touching this trum-
peter Marine that I have heard play afore the Lords
of the Circuit, I wad hae made nae mair o' him than
of a bairn and a bawbee whistle — I defy him to hae
played ' Boot and saddle,' or ' Horse and away,' or
' Gallants, come trot,' with me^ — he hadna the tones."

"But what is all this to old Lord Eavenswood,
my friend ? " said the Master, who, with an anxiety
not unnatural in his circumstances, was desirous of
prosecuting the musician's first topic — " What had
his memory to do with the degeneracy of the trum-
pet music ? "

" Just this, sir," answered the sexton, " that I
lost my wind in his service. Ye see I was trum-
peter at the castle, and had allowance for blawing
at break of day, and at dinner-time, and other whiles
when there was company about, and it pleased my
lord ; and when he raised his militia to caper awa to
Bothwell Brigg against the wrang-headed wastland

334 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

whigs, I behoved, reason or nane, to munt a horse
and caper awa wi' them."

" And very reasonable," said Kavenswood ; " you
were his servant and vassal."

" Servitor, say ye ? " replied the sexton, "and so
I was — but it was to blaw folk to their warm din-
ner, or at the warst to a decent kirkyard, and no
to skirl them awa to a bluidy brae side, where there
was deil a bedral but the hooded craw. But bide ye
— ye shall hear what cam o't, and how far I am
bund to be bedesman to the Eavenswoods. — Till't,
ye see, we gaed on a braw simmer morning, twenty-
fourth of June, saxteen hundred and se'enty-nine,
of a' the days of the month and year, — drums
beat — guns rattled — horses kicked and trampled.
Hackstoun of Eathillet keepit the brigg wi' musket
and carabine and pike, sword and scythe for what I
ken, and we horsemen were ordered down to cross at
the ford, — I hate fords at a' times, let abe when
there's thousands of armed men on the other side.
There was auld Kavenswood brandishing his Andrew
Ferrara at the head, and crying to us to come and
buckle to, as if we had been gaun to a fair, — there
was Caleb Balderstone, that is living yet, flourishing
in the rear, and swearing Gog and Magog, he would
put steel through the guts of ony man that turned
bridle, — there was young Allan Kavenswood, that
was then Master, wi' a bended pistol in his hand, —
it was a mercy it gaed na aff, — crying to me, that
had scarce as much wind left as serve the necessary
purpose of my ain lungs, ' Sound, you poltroon !
sound, you damned cowardly villain, or I will blow
your brains out ! ' and, to be sure, I blew sic points
of war, that the scraugh of a clockin-hen was
music to them."

THE BRIDE OE LAMMERMOOR. 335

" Well, sir, cut all this short," said Ravenswood.

" Short 1 — I had like to hae been cut short my-
sell, in the flower of my youth, as Scripture says ;
and that's the very thing that I compleen 0'. —
Weel ! in to the water we behoved a' to splash,
heels ower head, sit or fa' — ae horse driving on
anither, as is the way of brute beasts, and riders that
hae as little sense, — the very bushes on the ither
side were ableeze, wi' the flashes of the whig guns ;
and my horse had just taen the grund, when a
blackavised westland carle — I wad mind the face o'
him a hundred years yet — an ee like a wild falcon's,
and a beard as broad as my shovel, clapped the end
0' his lang black gun within a quarter's length of
my lug ! — by the grace 0' Mercy, the horse swarved
round, and I fell aff at the tae side as the ball
whistled by at the tither, and the fell auld lord took
the whig such a swauk wi' his broadsword that he
made twa pieces 0' his head, and down fell the
lurdane wi' a' his bowk abune me."

" You were rather obliged to the old lord, I
think," said Eavenswood.

" Was I ? my sartie ! first for bringing me into
jeopardy, would I nould I — and then for whomling
a chield on the tap 0' me, that dang the very wind
out of my body ? — I hae been short-breathed ever
since, and canna gang twenty yards without pegh-
ing like a miller's aiver."

" You lost, then, your place as trumpeter ? " said
Eavenswood.

" Lost it ? to be sure I lost it," replied the sex-
ton, " for I couldna hae played pew upon a dry
humlock ; but I might hae dune weel eneugh, for
I keepit the wage and the free house, and little to
do but play on the fiddle to them, but for Allan,

336 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

last Lord Eavenswood, that was far waur than ever
his father was."

" What," said the Master, "did my father — I
mean, did his father's son — this last Lord Eavens-
wood, deprive you of what the bounty of his father
allowed you ? "

" Ay, troth did he," answered the old man ; " for
he loot his affairs gang to the dogs, and let in this
Sir William Ashton on us, that will gie naething
for naething, and just removed me and a' the puir
creatures that had Lite and soup at the castle, and
a hole to put our heads in, when things were in the
auld way."

" If Lord Eavenswood protected his people, my
friend, while he had the means of doing so, I think
they might spare his memory," replied the Master.

" Ye are welcome to your ain opinion, sir," said
the sexton ; " but ye winna persuade me that he did
his duty, either to himsell or to huz puir depend-
ent creatures, in guiding us the gate he has done —
he might hae gien us liferent tacks of our bits o*
houses and yards — and me, that's an auld man, liv-
ing in yon miserable cabin, that's fitter for the dead
than the quick, and killed wi' rheumatise, and John
Smith in my dainty bit mailing, and his window
glazen, and a' because Eavenswood guided his gear
like a fule ! "

" It is but too true," said Eavenswood, conscience-
struck ; " the penalties of extravagance extend far
beyond the prodigal's own sufferings."

" However," said the sexton, " this young man
Edgar is like to avenge my wrangs on the haill of
his kindred."

" Indeed ? " said Eavenswood; " why should you
suppose so ? "

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. ^2,7

" They say he is about to marry the daughter of
Leddy Ashton ; and let her leddyship get his head
ance under her oxter, and see you if she winna
gie his neck a thraw. Sorra a bit, if I were him —
Let her alane for hauding a' thing in het water that
draws near her — sae the warst wish I shall wish
the lad is, that he may take his ain creditable gate
o't, and ally himsell wi' his father's enemies, that
have taken his broad lands and my bonny kailyard
from the lawful owners thereof."

Cervantes acutely remarks, that flattery is pleas-
ing even from the mouth of a madman ; and cen-
sure, as well as praise, often affects us, while we
despise the opinions and motives on which it is
founded and expressed. Ravenswood, abruptly re-
iterating his command that Alice's funeral should
be attended to, flung away from the sexton, under
the painful impression that the great, as well as the
small vulgar, would think of his engagement with
Lucy like this ignorant and selfish peasant.

" And I have stooped to subject myself to these
calumnies, and am rejected notwithstanding ! Lucy,
your faith must be true and perfect as the diamond,
to compensate for the dishonour which men's
opinions, and the conduct of your mother, attach
to the heir of Eavenswood ! "

As he raised his eyes, he beheld the Marquis of

A , who, having arrived at the Tod's-hole, had

walked forth to look for his kinsman.

After mutual greetings, he made some apology
to the Master for not coming forward on the pre-
ceding evening. " It was his wish," he said, " to
have done so, but he had come to the knowledge of
some matters which induced him to delay his pur-
pose. I find," he proceeded, " there has been a Iovq
22

338 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

affair here, kinsman ; and though I might blame you
for not having communicated with me, as being in
some degree the chief of your family "

" With your lordship's permission," said Eavens-
wood, " I am deeply grateful for the interest you
are pleased to take in me — but /am the chief and
head of my family."

" I know it — I know it," said the Marquis ; " in
a strict heraldic and genealogical sense, you cer-
tainly are so — what I mean is, that being in some
measure under my guardianship "

" I must take the liberty to say, my lord," an-
swered Eavenswood — and the tone in which he
interrupted the Marquis boded no long duration to
the friendship of the noble relatives, when he him-
self was interrupted by the little sexton, who came
puffing after them, to ask if their honours would
choose music at the change-house to make up for
short cheer.

"We want no music," said the Master abruptly.

" Your honour disna ken what ye're refusing,
then," said the fiddler, with the impertinent free-
dom of his profession. " I can play ' Wilt thou
do 't again ' and ' The Auld Man's Mear's Dead ' sax
times better than ever Pattie Birnie. I'll get my
fiddle in the turning of a coffin-screw."

" Take yourself away, sir," said the Marquis.

" And if your honour be a north-country gentle-
man," said the persevering minstrel, " whilk I wad
judge from your tongue, I can play ' Liggeram
Cosh/ and 'JMullin Dhu,' and 'The Cummers of
Athole.' "

" Take yourself away, friend ; you interrupt our
conversation."

" Or if, under your honour's favour, ye should

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 339

happen to be a thought honest, I can play," (this in
a low and confidential tone,) " ' Killiecrankie,' and
' The King shall hae his ain,' and ' The Auld Stew-
arts back again,* — and the wife at the change-house
is a decent discreet body, neither kens nor cares
what toasts are drucken, and what tunes are played
in her house — she's deaf to a' thing but the clink o'
the siller."

The Marquis, who was sometimes suspected of
jacobitism, could not help laughing as he threw the
fellow a dollar, and bid him go play to the servants
if he had a mind, and leave them at peace.

" Aweel, gentlemen," said he, " I am wishing
your honours gude day — I'll be a' the better of the
dollar, and ye'll be the waur of wanting the" music,
I'se tell ye — But I'se gang hame, and finish the
grave in the tuning o' a fiddle-string, lay by my
spade, and then get my tother bread-winner, and
awa to your folk, and see if they hae better lugs
than their masters."

CHAPTEE XXV.

True love, an thou be true,

Thou lias ane kittle part to play ;

For fortune, fashion, fancy, and thou,
Maun strive for many a day.

I've kend by mony a friend's tale,

Far better by this heart of mine,
What time and change of fancy avail

A true-love knot to untwine.

Hexdersoun.

'■ I WISHED to tell you, my good kinsman," said
the Marquis, " now that we are quit of that imper-
tinent fiddler, that I had tried to discuss this love
affair of yours with Sir William Ashton's daughter.
I never saw the young lady but for a few minutes
to-day ; so, being a stranger to her personal merits,
I pay a compliment to you, and offer her no offence,
in saying you might do better."

" My lord, I am much indebted for the interest
you have taken in my affairs," said Eavenswood.
" I did not intend to have troubled you in any mat-
ter concerning Miss Ashton. As my engagement
with that young ladj' has reached your lordship, I
can only say, that you must necessarily suppose that
I was aware of the objections to my marrying into
her father's family, and of course must have been
completely satisfied with the reasons by which these
objections are overbalanced, since I have proceeded
so far in the matter."

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 341

" Nay, Master, if you had heard me out," said
his noble relation, " you might have spared that
observation ; for, without questioning that you had
reasons which seemed to you to counterbalance
every other obstacle, I set myself, by every means
that it became me to use towards the Ashtons, to
persuade them to meet your views."

" I am obliged to your lordship for your un-
solicited intercession," said Ravenswood ; " especially
as I am sure your lordship would never carry it be-
yond the bounds which it became me to use."

" Of that," said the Marquis, " you may be con-
fident ; I myself felt the delicacy of the matter too
much to place a gentleman nearly connected with
my house in a degrading or dubious situation with
these Ashtons. But I pointed out all the advan-
tages of their marrying their daughter into a house
so honourable, and so nearly related with the first
in Scotland ; I explained the exact degree of rela-
tionship in which the Ravenswoods stand to our-
selves ; and I even hinted how political matters
were like to turn, and what cards would be trumps
next Parliament. I said I regarded you as a son
— or a nephew, or so — rather than as a more dis-
tant relation ; and that I made your affair entirely
my own."

" And what was the issue of your lordship's
explanation ? " said Ravenswood, in some doubt
whether he should resent or express gratitude for
his interference.

" Why, the Lord Keeper would have listened
to reason," said the Marquis; "he is rather un-
willing to leave his place, which, in the present
view of a change, must be vacated; and, to say
truth, he seemed to have a liking for you, and to be

342 TALES or MY LANDLORD.

sensible of the general advantages to be attained
by such a match. But his lady, who is tongue of
the trump, Master "

" What of Lady Ashton, my lord ? " said Eavens-
wood ; " let me know the issue of this extraordinary
conference — I can bear it."

" I am glad of that, kinsman," said the Marquis,
" for I am ashamed to tell you half what she said.
It is enough — her mind is made up — and the mis-
tress of a first-rate boarding-school could not have
rejected with more haughty indifference the suit of
a half-pay Irisli officer, lieseeching permission to
wait upon the heiress of a West India planter, than
Lady Ashton spurned every proposal of mediation
which it could at all become me to offer in behalf
of you, my good kinsman. I cannot guess what she
means. A more honourable connexion she could
not form, that's certain. As for money and land,
that used to be her husband's business rather than
hers ; I really think she hates you for having the
rank wliich her husband has not, and perhaps for
not having the lands that her goodman has. But
I should only vex you to say more about it — here
we are at the change-house."

The Master of Eavenswood paused as he entered
the cottage, which reeked through all its crevices,
and they were not few, from the exertions of the
Marquis's travelling-cooks to supply good cheer,
and spread, as it were, a table in the wilderness.

" My Lord Marquis," said Eavenswood, " I already
mentioned that accident has put your lordship in
possession of a secret, which, with my consent,
should have remained one even to you, my kins-
man, for some time. Since the secret was to part
from my own custody, and that of the only person

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 343

besides who was interested in it, I am not sorry it
should have reached your lordship's ears, as being
fully aware that you are my noble kinsman and
friend."

" You may believe it is safely lodged with me,
Master of Kavenswood," said the Marquis ; " but I
should like well to hear you say, that you renounced
the idea of an alliance, which you can hardly pursue
without a certain degree of degradation."

" Of that, my lord, I shall judge," answered Ravens-
wood, " and I hope with delicacy as sensitive as any
of my friends. But I have no engagement with Sir
William and Lady Ashton. It is with Miss Ashton
alone that I have entered upon the subject, and my
conduct in the matter shall be entirely ruled by
hers. If she continues to prefer me in my poverty
to the wealthier suitors whom her friends recom-
mend, I may well make some sacrifice to her sincere
affection — I may well surrender to her the less
tangible and less palpable advantages of birth, and
the deep-rooted prejudices of family hatred. If Miss
Lucy Ashton should change her mind on. a subject of
such delicacy, I trust my friends will be silent on
my disappointment, and I shall know how to make
my enemies so."

" Spoke like a gallant young nobleman," said the
Marquis ; " for my part I have that regard for you,
that I should be sorry the thing went on. This Sir
William Ashton was a pretty enough pettifogging
kind of a lawyer twenty years ago, and betwixt bat-
tling at the bar, and leading in committees of Parlia-
ment, he has got well on — the Darien matter lent
him a lift, for he had good intelligence and sound
views, and sold out in time — but the best work is
had out of him. No government will take him at

344 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

his own, or rather his wife's, extravagant valuation ;
and betwixt his indecision and her insolence, from
all I can guess, he will outsit his market, and be
had cheap when no one will bid for him. I say
nothing of Miss Asliton ; but I assure you, a con-
nexion with her father will be neither useful nor
ornamental, beyond that part of your father's spoils
which he may be prevailed upon to disgorge by way
of tocher good — and take my word for it, you will
get more if you have spirit to bell the cat with him
in the House of Peers. — And I will be the man,
cousin," continued his lordship, " will course the fox
for you, and make him rue the day that ever he re-
fused a composition too honourable for him, and pro-
posed by me on the behalf of a kinsman."

There was something in all this that, as it were,
overshot the mark. Ravenswood could not disguise
from himself that his noble kinsman had more rea-
sons for taking offence at the reception of his suit,
than regarded his interest and honour, yet he could
neither complain nor be surprised that it should be
so. He contented himself therefore with repeating,
that his attachment was to Miss Ashton personally ;
that he desired neither wealth nor aggrandize-
ment from her father's means and influence ; and that
nothing should prevent his keeping his engage-
ment, excepting her own express desire that it
should be relinquished — and he requested as a fa-
vour that the matter might be no more mentioned be-
twixt them at present, assuring the Marquis of A

that he should be his confident in its progress or its
interruption.

The Marquis soon had more agreeable, as well as
more interesting subjects on which to converse. A
foot post, who had followed him from Edinburgh to

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 345

Ravenswood Castle, aud had traced his steps to the
Tod's-hole, brought him a packet laden with good
news. The political calculations of the Marquis
had proved just, both in London and at Edinburgh,
and he saw almost within his grasp, the pre-eminence
for which he had panted. — The refreshments which
the servants had prepared were now put on the table,
and an epicure would perhaps have enjoyed them
with additional zest, from the contrast which such
fare afforded to the miserable cabin in which it was
served up.

The turn of conversation corresponded with and
added to the social feelings of the company. The
Marquis expanded with pleasure on the power which
probable incidents were likely to assign to him, and
on the use which he hoped to make of it in serving
his kinsman Eavenswood. Eavenswood could but
repeat the gratitude which he really felt, even when
he considered the topic as too long dwelt upon.
The wine was excellent, notwithstanding its having
been brought in a runlet from Edinburgh ; and the
habits of the Marquis, when engaged with such good
cheer, were somewhat sedentary. And so it fell out
that they delayed their journey two hours later than
was their original purpose.

" But what of that, my good young friend ? " said
the Marquis ; " your Castle of Wolf's Crag is but at
five or six miles distance, and will afford the same

hospitality to your kinsman of A that it gave

to this same Sir William Ashton."

" Sir William took the castle by storm," said Eav-
enswood, " and, like many a victor, had little reason
to congratulate himself on his conquest."

" Well, well ! " said Lord A , whose dignity

was something relaxed by the wine he had druuk.

346 TALES OF :\IY LANDLORD.

— "I see I must bribe you to harbour me — Come,
pledge me in a bumper health to the last young
lady that slept at Wolf's Crag, and liked her quar-
ters — My bones are not so tender as hers, and I am
resolved to occupy her apartment to-night, that I
may judge how hard the couch is that love can
soften."

"Your lordship may choose what penance you
please," said Eavenswood; "but I assure you, I
should expect my old servant to hang himself, or
throw himself from the battlements, should your
lordship visit him so unexpectedly — I do assure
you, we are totally and literally unprovided."

But his declaration only brought from his noble
patron an assurance of his own total indifference as
to every species of accommodation, and his deter-
mination to see the Tower of Wolf's Crag. His
ancestor, he said, had been feasted there, when he
went forward with the then Lord Eavenswood to
the fatal battle of Flodden, in which they both fell.
Thus hard pressed, the Master offered to ride for-
ward to get matters put in such preparation as
time and circumstances admitted ; but the Marquis
protested his kinsman must afford him his com-
pany, and would only consent that an avaut-courier
should carry to the destined Seneschal, Caleb Bal-
derstone, the unexpected news of this invasion.

The Master of Eavenswood soon after accom-
panied the Marquis in his carriage, as the latter had
proposed ; and when they became better acquainted
in the progress of the journey, his noble relation
explained the very liberal views wliich he enter-
tained for his relation's preferment, in case of the
success of his own political schemes. They related
to a secret and highly important commission be-

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 347

yond sea, which could only be intrusted to a per-
son of rank, talent, and perfect confidence, and
which, as it required great trust and reliance on
the envoy employed, could not but prove both hon-
ourable and advantageous to him. We need not
enter into the nature and purpose of this commis-
sion, farther than to acquaint our readers that the
charge was in prospect highly acceptable to the
Master of Ravenswood, who hailed with pleasure
the hope of emerging from his present state of in-
digence and inaction, into independence and hon-
ourable exertion.

While he listened thus eagerly to the details with
which the Marquis now thought it necessary to in-
trust him, the messenger who had been dispatched to
the Tower of Wolf's Crag, returned with Caleb
Balderstone's humble duty, and an assurance that
"a' should be in seemly order, sic as the hurry
of time permitted, to receive their lordships as it
behoved."

Ravenswood was too well accustomed to his Sen-
eschal's mode of acting and speaking, to hope much
from this confident assurance. He knew that Caleb
acted upon the principle of the Spanish generals,
in the campaign of , who, much to the perplex-
ity of the Prince of Orange, their commander-in-
chief, used to report their troops as full in number,
and possessed of all necessary points of equipment,
not considering it consistent with their dignity, or
the honour of Spain, to confess any deficiency either
in men or munition, until the want of both was un-
avoidably discovered in the day of battle. Accord-
ingly, Ravenswood thought it necessary to give the
Marquis some hint, that the fair assurance which
they had just received from Caleb, did not by any

348 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

means insure them against a very indifferent
reception.

" You do yourself injustice, Master," said the
Marquis, " or you wish to surprise me agreeably.
From this window I see a great light in the direc-
tion where, if I remember aright, Wolf's Crag lies ;
and, to judge from the splendour which the old
Tower sheds around it, the preparations for our re-
ception must be of no ordinary description. I re-
member your father putting the same deception on
me, when we went to the Tower for a few days'
hawking, about twenty years since, and yet we
spent our time as jollily at Wolf's Crag as we could
have done at my own hunting seat at B ."

" Your lordship, I fear, will experience that the
faculty of the present proprietor to entertain his
friends is greatly abridged," said Eavenswood ;
" the will, I need hardly say, remains the same.
But I am as much at a loss as your lordship to
account for so strong and brilliant a light as is now
above Wolf's Crag, — the windows of the Tower are
few and narrow, and those of the lower story are
hidden from us by the walls of the court. I can-
not conceive that any illumination of an ordinary
nature could afford such a blaze of light."

The mystery was soon explained ; for the caval-
cade almost instantly halted, and the voice of Caleb
Balderstone was heard at the coach window, ex-
claiming, in accents broken by grief and fear, " Och,
gentlemen — Och, my gude lords — Och, baud to
the right ! — Wolf's Crag is burning, bower and ha'
— a' the rich plenishing outside and inside — a' the
fine graith, pictures, tapestries, needle-wark, hang-
ings, and other decorements — a' in a bleeze, as if
they were nae mair than sae mony peats, or as

THE BRIDE OE LAMMERMOOR. 349

muckle peas-strae ! Haud to the right, gentlemen,
I implore ye — there is some sma' provision making
at Lucky Sma'trash's — but 0, wae for this night,
and wae for me that lives to see it ! "

Ravenswood was at first stunned by this new
and unexpected calamity ; but after a moment's re-
collection, he sprang from the carriage, and hastily
bidding his noble kinsman good-night, was about
to ascend the hill towards the castle, the broad and
full conflagration of which now flung forth a high
column of red light, that flickered far to seaward
upon the dashing waves of the ocean.

" Take a horse. Master," exclaimed the Marquis,
greatly affected by this additional misfortune, so
unexpectedly heaped upon his young protege ; " and
give me my ambling palfrey ; — and haste forward,
you knaves, to see what can. be done to save the fur-
niture, or to extinguish the fire — ride, you knaves,
for your lives ! "

The attendants bustled together, and began to
strike their horses with the spur, and call upon
Caleb to show them the road. But the voice of
that careful Seneschal was heard above the tumult,
" 0 stop — sirs, stop — turn bridle, for the luve of
mercy — add not loss of lives to the loss of warld's
gear ! — Thirty barrels of powther, landed out of a
Dunkirk dogger in the auld lord's time — a' in the
vau'ts of the auld tower, — the fire canna be far aff
it, I trow — Lord's sake, to the right, lads — to the
right — let's pit the hill atween us and peril, — a
wap wi' a corner-stane o' Wolf's Crag wad defy
the doctor ! "

It will readily be supposed that this annuncia-
tion hurried the Marquis and his attendants into
the route which Caleb prescribed, dragging Ravens-

35° TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

wood along with them, although there was much
in the matter which he could not possibly compre-
hend. " Gunpowder ! " he exclaimed, laying hold
of Caleb, who in vain endeavoured to escape from
him, " what gunpowder ? How any quantity of
powder could be in Wolf's Crag without my know-
ledge, I cannot possibly comprehend."

" But I can," interrupted the Marquis, whispering
him, " I can comprehend it thoroughly — for God's
sake, ask him no more questions at present."

" There it is, now," said Caleb, extricating himself
from his master, and adjusting his dress, " your hon-
our will believe his lordship's honourable testimony
— His lordship minds weel, how, in the year that
him they ca'd King Willie died"

" Hush ! hush, my good friend ! " said the Marquis ;
" I shall satisfy your master upon that subject."

" And the people at Wolf's-hope " — said Ravens-
wood, " did none of them come to your assistance
before the flame got so high ? "

" Ay did they, mony ane of them, the rapscal-
lions ! " said Caleb ; " but truly I was in nae hurry
to let them into the Tower, where there were so
much plate and valuables."

" Confound you for an impudent liar ! " said
Eavenswood, in uncontrollable ire, " there was not a
single ounce of "

" Forby," said the butler, most irreverently rais-
ing his voice to a pitch which drowned his master's,
" the fire made fast on us, owing to the store of
tapestry and carved timmer in the banqueting ha',
and the loons ran like scauded rats sae sune as they
heard of the gunpouther."

" I do entreat," said the Marquis to Ravenswood,
" you will ask him no more questions."

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 351

" Only one, my lord — What has become of poor
Mysie ? "

" Mysie ? " said Caleb, " I had nae time to look
about ony Mysie — she's in the tower, I'se warrant,
biding her awful doom."

" By heaven ! " said Kavenswood, " I do not under-
stand all this ! The life of a faithful old creature
is at stake — my lord, I will be withheld no longer
— I will at least ride up, and see whether the dan-
ger is as imminent as this old fool pretends."

" Weel, then, as I live by bread," said Caleb,
" Mysie is weel and safe. I saw her out of the
castle before I left it mysell. Was I ganging to for-
get an auld fellow-servant ? "

" What made you tell me the contrary this mo-
ment ? " said his master.

" Did I tell you the contrary ? " said Caleb ; " then
I maun hae been dreaming surely, or this awsome
night has turned my judgment — but safe she is,
and ne'er a living soul in the castle, a' the better
for them — they wad have gotten an unco heezy."

The Master of Eavenswood, upon this assurance
being solemnly reiterated, and notwithstanding his
extreme wish to witness the last explosion, which
was to ruin to the ground the mansion of his fathers,
suffered himself to be dragged onward towards the
village of Wolf's-hope, where not only the change-
house, but that of our well-known friend the cooper,
were all prepared for reception of himself and his
noble guest, with a liberality of provision which
requires some explanation.

We omitted to mention in its place, that Lock-
hard, having fished out the truth concerning the
mode by which Caleb had obtained the supplies for
his banquet, the Lord Keeper, amused with the in-

352 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

cident, and desirous at the time to gratify Eavens-
wood, had recommended the cooper of Wolf's-hope
to the official situation under government, the pro-
spect of which had reconciled him to the loss of his
wild-fowl. Mr. Girder's preferment had occasioned
a pleasing surprise to old Caleb ; for when, some
days after his master's departure, he found himself
absolutely compelled, by some necessary business,
to visit the fishing hamlet, and was gliding like a
ghost past the door of the cooper, for fear of being
summoned to give some account of the progress of
the solicitation in his favour, or, more probably,
that the inmates might upbraid him with the false
hope he had held out upon the subject, he heard
himself, not without some apprehension, summoned
at once in treble, tenor, and bass, — a trio performed
by the voices of Mrs. Girder, old Dame Loup-the-
dike, and the goodman of the dwelling — " Mr.
Caleb — Mr. Caleb — Mv. Caleb Balderstone ! I
hope ye arena ganging dry-lipped by our door, and
we sae muckle indebted to you ? "

This might be said ironically as well as in earnest.
Caleb augured the worst, turned a deaf ear to the
trio aforesaid, and was moving doggedly on, his an-
cient castor pulled over his brows, and his eyes bent
on the ground, as if to count the flinty pebbles with
which the rude pathway was causewayed. But on
a sudden he found himself surrounded in his pro-
gress, like a stately merchantman in the Gut of
Gibraltar (I hope the ladies will excuse the tar-
paulin phrase) by three Algerine galleys.

" Gude guide us, Mr. Balderstone ! " said Mrs.
Girder.

" Wha wad hae thought it of an auld and kend
friend ? " said the mother.

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 353

"And no sae muckle as stay to receive our
thanks," said the cooper himself, " and frae the like
o' me that seldom offers them I I am sure I hope
there's nae ill seed sawn between us, ]\Ir. Balder-
stone — Ony man that has said to ye, I am no
gratefu' for the situation of Queen's cooper, let me
hae a whample at him wi' mine eatche ^ — that's a'."

" My good friends — my dear friends," said Caleb,
still doubting how the certainty of the matter might
stand, " what needs a' this ceremony ? — ane tries to
serve their friends, and sometimes they may happen
to prosper, and sometimes to misgie — naething I
care to be fashed wi' less than thanks — I never
could bide them."

" Faith, Mr. Balderstone, ye suld hae been fashed
wi' few 0' mine," said the downright man of staves
and hoops, "if I had only your gude-will to thank
ye for — I suld e'en hae set the guse, and the wild-
deukes, and the runlet of sack, to balance that ac-
count. Gude-will, man, is a geizen'd tub, that hands
in nae liquor — but gude deed's like the cask, tight,
round, and sound, that will baud liquor for the
king."

"Have ye no heard of our letter," said the
mother-in-law, " making our John the Queen's
cooper for certain ? — and scarce a chield that had
ever hammered gird upon tub but was applying
for it ? "

" Have I heard ! ! ! " said Caleb, (who now found
how the wind set,) with an accent of exceeding con-
tempt at the doubt expressed — "Have I heard,
quo' she ! ! ! " — and as he spoke, he changed his
shambling, skulking, dodging pace, into a manly
and authoritative step, re-adjusted his cocked hat,

1 Anglice, adze.

354 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

and suffered his brow to emerge from under it in
all the pride of aristocracy, like the sun from behind
a cloud.

" To be sure, he canna but hae heard," said the
good woman.

" Ay, to be sure, it's impossible but I should,"
said Caleb ; " and sae Til be the first to kiss ye, joe,
and wish you, cooper, much joy of your preferment,
nae thing doubting but ye ken wha are your friends,
and have helped ye, and can help ye. I thought it
right to look a wee strange upon it at first," added
Caleb, " just to see if ye were made of the right
mettle — but ye ring true, lad, ye ring true ! "

So saying, with a most lordly air he kissed the
women, and abandoned his hand, with an air of
serene patronage, to the hearty shake of Mr. Girder's
horn-hard palm. Upon this complete, and to Caleb
most satisfactory, information, he did not, it may
readily be believed, hesitate to accept an invitation
to a solemn feast, to which were invited, not only
all the notables of the village, but even his ancient
antagonist, Mr. Dingwall himself. At this festivity
he was, of course, the most welcome and most hon-
oured guest ; and so well did he ply the company
with stories of what he could do with his master,
his master with the Lord Keeper, the Lord Keeper
with the Council, and the Council with the King,
that before the company dismissed, (which was,
indeed, rather at an early hour than a late one,)
every man of note in the village was ascending
to the top-gallant of some ideal preferment by the
ladder of ropes which Caleb had presented to their
imagination. Nay, the cunning butler regained
in that moment, not only all the influence he pos-
sessed formerly over the villagers, when the bar-

THE BRIDE 01" LAMMERMOOR.

55:

ouial family which he served were at the proudest,
but acquired even an accession of importance.
The writer — ■ the very attorney himself — such is
the thirst of preferment — felt the force of the at-
traction, and taking an opportunity to draw Caleb
into a corner, spoke, with affectionate regret, of the
declining health of the sheriff-clerk of the county.

" An excellent man — a most valuable man, Mr.
Caleb — but fat sail I say ! — we are peer feckless
bodies — here the day, and awa by cock-screech
the morn — and if he failzies, there maun be some-
body in his place — and gif that ye could airt it my
way, I sail be thankful, man — a gluve stuffed wi'
gowd nobles — an' hark ye, man, something canny
till yoursell — and the Wolf's-hope carles to settle
kindly wi' the Master of Eavenswood — that is,
Lord Eavenswood — God bless his lordship 1 "

A smile, and a hearty squeeze by the hand, was
the suitable answer to this overture — and Caleb
made his escape from the jovial party, in order to
avoid committing himself by any special promises.

" The Lord be gude to me," said Caleb, when he
found himself in the open air, and at liberty to give
vent to the self-exultation with which he was, as it
were, distended ; " did ever ony man see sic a set
of green-gaislings ! — the very pick-maws and solan-
geese outby yonder at the Bass hae ten times their
sense! — God, an I had been the Lord Higli Com-
missioner to the Estates o' Parliament, they couldna
hae beflumm'd me mair — and, to speak Heaven's
truth, I could hardly hae beflumm'd them better
neither ! But the writer — ha ! ha ! ha ! — ah, ha !
ha ! ha ! mercy on me, that I suld live in my auld
days to gie the gang-by to the very writer ! —
Sheriff-clerk ! ! ' — But I hae an auld account to

356 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

settle wi' the carle ; and to make amends for by-
ganes, the ofhce shall just cost him as much time-
serving and tide-serving, as if he were to get it in
gude earnest — of whilk there is sma' appearance,
unless the Master learns mair the ways of this
warld, whilk it is muckle to be doubted that he
never will do." —

CHAPTEE XXYI.

Wh}' flames tlie far summit — why shoot to the blast
Those embers, like stars from the firmament cast ? —
'Tis the fire-shower of ruin, all dreadfully driven
From his eyry, that beacons the darkness of Heaven.

Campbell.

The circumstances annoiuiced in the conclusion
of the last chapter, will account for the ready and

cheerful reception of the Marquis of A and

the Master of Ravenswood in the village of Wolf's-
hope. In fact, Caleb had no sooner announced the
conflagration of the tower, than the whole hamlet
were upon foot to hasten to extinguish the flames.
And although that zealous adherent diverted their
zeal by intimating the formidable contents of the
subterranean apartments, yet the check only turned
their assiduity into another direction. Never had
there been such slaughtering of capons, and fat
geese, and barn-door fowls, — never such boiling of
reested hams, — never such making of car-cakes and
sweet scones, Selkirk bannocks, cookies, and petti-
coat-tails — delicacies little known to the present
generation. (0 Never had there been such a tap-
ping of barrels, and such uncorking of greybeards,
in the village of Wolf's-hope. All the inferior
houses were thrown open for the reception of the
Marquis's dependants, who came, it was thought, as
precursors of the shower of preferment, which here-
after was to leave the rest of Scotland drv, in order

358 • TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

to distil its rich dews ou the village of Wolf's-hope
under Lamraermoor. The minister put in his claim
to have the guest of distinction lodged at the
Manse, having his eye, it was thought, upon a neigh-
bouring preferment, where the incumbent was sickly;
but Mr. Balderstone destined that honour to the
cooper, his wife, and wife's mother, who danced for
joy at the preference thus assigned them.

Many a beck and many a bow welcomed these
noble guests to as good entertainment as persons of
such rank could set before such visitors ; and the
old dame, who had formerly lived in Eavenswood
Castle, and knew, as she said, the ways of the nobil-
ity, was in no whit wanting in arranging matters,
as well as circumstances permitted, according to
the etiquette of the times. The cooper's house was
so roomy, that each guest had his separate retiring
room, to which they were ushered with all due
ceremony, while the plentiful supper was in the act
of being placed upon the table.

Eavenswood no sooner found himself alone, than,
impelled by a thousand feelings, he left the apart-
ment, the house, and the village, and hastily re-
traced his steps to the brow of the hill, which rose
betwixt the village, and screened it from the tower,
in order to view the final fall of the house of his
fathers. Some idle boys from the hamlet had taken
the same direction out of curiosity, having first
witnessed the arrival of the coach-and-six and its
attendants. As they ran one by one past the Mas-
ter, calling to each other to " come and see the auld
tower blaw up in the lift like the peelings of an
ingan," he could not but feel himself moved with
indignation. " And these are the sons of my father's
vassals," he said — " of men bound, both by law and

THE BRIDE OE LAMMERMOOR. 359

gratitude, to follow our steps through battle, and
tire, and flood ; and now the destruction of their
liege-lord's house is but a holiday's sight to
them ! "

These exasperating reflections were partly ex-
pressed in the acrimony with which he exclaimed,
on feeling himself pulled by the cloak, — " What do
you want, you dog ? "

" I am a dog, and an auld dog too," answered
Caleb, for it was he who had taken the freedom,
" and I am like to get a dog's wages — but it does
not signification a pinch of sneeshing, for I am ower
auld a dog to learn new tricks, or to follow a new
mastei'."

As he spoke, Eavenswood attained the ridge of
the hill from which Wolf's Crag was visible ; the
flames had entirely sunk down, and, to his great
surprise, there was only a dusky reddening upon
the clouds immediately over the castle, which
seemed the reflection of the embers of the sunken
fire.

" The place cannot have blown up," said the
Master ; " we must have heard the report — if a
quarter of the gunpowder was there you tell me
of, it would have been heard twenty miles off."

" It's very like it wad," said Balderstone,
composedly.

" Then the fire cannot have reached the vaults ? "

" It's like no," answered Caleb, with the same im-
penetrable gravity.

" Hark ye, Caleb," said his master, " this grows a
little too much for my patience. I must go and ex-
amine how matters stand at Wolf's Crag myself."

" Your honour is ganging to gang nae sic gate,"
said Caleb, firmlv.

36o TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

"And why not?" said Eavenswood, sharply;
" who or what shall prevent me ? "

" Even I mysell," said Caleb, with the same
determination.

" You, Balderstone ! " replied the Master ; " you
are forgetting yourself, I think."

" But I think no," said Balderstone ; " for I can
just tell ye a' about the castle on this knowe-head
as weel as if ye were at it. Only diuna pit your-
sell into a kippage, and expose yoursell before
the weans, or before the Marquis, when ye gang
down-by."

" Speak out, you old fool," replied his master,
"and let me know the best and the worst at once."

" Ou, the best and the warst is, just that the
tower is standing hail and feir, as safe and as empty
as when ye left it."

" Indeed ! — and the fire ? " said Eavenswood.

" Not a gleed of fire, then, except the bit kindling
peat, and maybe a spunk in Mysie's cutty-pipe,"
replied Caleb.

" But the flame ? " demanded Eavenswood ; " the
broad blaze which miglit have been seen ten miles
off — what occasioned that ? "

" Hout awa ! it's an auld .saying and a true, —

Little's the liglit

Will he seen in a mirk niglit.

A wheen fern and horse litter that I fired in the
court-yard, after sending back the loon of a foot-
man ; and, to speak heaven's truth, the next time
that ye send or bring ony body here, let them be
gentles allenarly, without ony fremd servants, like
that chield Lockhard, to be gledging and gleeing
about, and looking upon the wrang side of ane's

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 361

housekeeping, to the discredit of the family, and
forcing ane to damn their souls wi' telling ae lee
after another faster than I can count them — I wad
rather set fire to the tower in gude earnest, and
burn it ower my ain head into the bargain, or I see
the family dishonoured in the sort."

" Upon my word, I am infinitely obliged by the
proposal, Caleb," said his master, scarce able to re-
strain his laughter, though rather angry at the same
time. " But the gunpowder ? — is there such a
thing in the tower ? — The Marquis seemed to know
of it."

" The pouther — ha ! ha ! ha ! — the Marquis

— ha ! ha ! ha ! " replied Caleb ; " if your honour
were to brain me, I behooved to laugh — the Mar-
quis — the pouther ! - — was it there ? ay, it was there.
Did he ken o't ? — my certie I the Marquis kend
o't, and it was the best 0' the game ; for, when I
couldna pacify your honour wi' a' that I could say,
I aye threw out a word mair about the gunpouther,
and garr'd the Marquis tak the job in his ain hand."

" But you have not answered my question," said
the Master, impatiently ; " how came the powder
there, and where is it now ? "

" Ou, it came there, an ye maun needs ken," said
Caleb, looking mysteriously, and whispering, " when
there was like to be a wee bit rising here ; and the
Marquis, and a' the great lords of the north, were
a' in it, and mony a gudely gun and broadsword
were ferried ower frae Dunkirk forby the pouther

— awfu' wark we had getting them into the tower
under cloud o' night, for ye maun think it wasna
every body could be trusted wi' sic kittle jobs —
But if ye will gae hame to your supper, I will tell
you a' about it as ye gang down."

362 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

"And these wretched boys," said Eavenswood,
" is it your pleasure they are to sit there all night,
to wait for the blowing up of a tower that is not
even on fire ? "

" Surely not, if it is your honour's pleasure that
they suld gang hame ; although," added Caleb, " it
wadna do them a grain's damage — they wad screigh
less the next day, and sleep the sounder at e'en —
But just as your honour likes."

Stepping accordingly towards the urchins who
manned the knolls near which they stood, Caleb
informed them, in an authoritative tone, that their
Honours Lord Eavenswood and the Marquis of

A had given orders that the tower was not to

blow up till next day at noon. The boys dispersed
upon this comfortable assurance. One or two,
however, followed Caleb for more information, par-
ticularly the urchin whom he had cheated while
officiating as turnspit, who screamed, " Mr. Balder-
stone ! Mr. Balderstone ! than the castle's gane out
like an auld wife's spunk ? "

" To be sure it is, callant," said the butler ; " do ye
think the castle of as great a lord as Lord Eavens-
wood wad continue in a bleeze, and him stand-
ing looking on wi' his ain very een ? — It's aye
right," continued Caleb, shaking off his ragged
page, and closing in to his master, " to train up
weans, as the wise man says, in the way they
should go, and, aboon a', to teach them respect to
their superiors."

" But all this while, Caleb, you have never told
me what became of the arms and powder," said
Eavenswood.

" Why, as for the arms," said Caleb, " it was
just like the bairn's rhyme —

THE BRIDE OF LA^IMERMOOE. 363

Some gaecl east, and some gaed west,
And some gaed to tlie craw's nest :

And for the pouther, I e'en changed it, as occasion
served, with the skippers 0' Dutch luggers and
French vessels, for gin and brandy, and it served
the house mony a year — a gude swap too, between
what cheereth the soul of man and that which ding-
eth it clean out of his body ; forby, I keepit a
wheen pounds of it for yoursell when ye wanted
to take the pleasure 0' shooting — whiles, in these
latter days, I w^ad hardly hae kend else whar to get
pouther for your pleasure. — And now that your
anger is ower, sir, wasna that weel managed o' me,
and arena ye far better sorted doun yonder, than ye
could hae been in your ain auld ruins upby yon-
der, as the case stands wi' us now ? — the mair's the
pity."

" I believe you may be right, Caleb ; but, before
burning down ray castle, either in jest or in ear-
nest," said Ravenswood, " I think I had a right to
be in the secret."

" Fie for shame, your honour ! " replied Caleb ;
" it fits an auld carle like me weel eneugh to tell
lees for the credit of the family, but it wadna be-
seem the like o' your honour's sell ; besides, young
folk are no judicious — they cannot make the maist
of a bit figment. Now this fire — for a fire it sail
be, if I suld burn the auld stable to make it mair
feasible — this fire, besides that it will be an excuse
for asking ony thing we want through the country,
or doun at the haven — this fire will settle mony
things on an honourable footing for the family's
credit, that cost me telling twenty daily lees to a
wheen idle chaps and queans, and, what's waur,
without sainins credence."

364 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

" That was hard indeed, Caleb ; but I do not
566 how this fire should help your veracity or your
credit."

" There it is now ! " said Caleb ; " wasna I say-
ing that young folk had a green judgment ? — How
suld it help me, quotha ? — it will be a creditable
apology for the honour of the family for this score
of years to come, if it is weel guided. Where's
the family pictures ? says ae meddling body — the
great fire at Wolf's Crag, answers I. Where's the
family plate ? says another — the great fire, says I ;
wha was to think of plate, when life and limb were
in danger ? — Where's the wardrobe and the linens ?
— where's the tapestries and the decorements ? —
beds of state, twilts, pands and testors, napery and
broidered wark ? — The fire — the fire — the fire.
Guide the fire weel, and it will serve ye for a' that
ye suld have and have not — and, in some sort, a
gude excuse is better than the things themselves ;
for they maun crack and wear out, and be con-
sumed by time, whereas a gude offcome, prudently
and creditably handled, may serve a nobleman and
his family. Lord kens how lang ! "

Ravenswood was too well acquainted with his
butler's pertinacity and self-opinion, to dispute the
point with him any farther. Leaving Caleb, there-
fore, to the enjoyment of his own successful inge-
nuity, he returned to the hamlet, where he found
the Marquis and the good women of the mansion
under some anxiety — the former on account of his
absence, the others for the discredit their cookery
might sustain by the delay of the supper. All were
now at ease, and heard with pleasure that the fire
at the castle had burned out of itself without reach-
ing the vaults, which was the only information that

THE BRIDE OF LA.MMERMOOR. 365

Raveuswood thought it proper to give in public
concerning the event of his butler's stratagem.

They sat down to an excellent supper. No invi-
tation could prevail on Mr. and Mrs. Girder, even
in their own house, to sit down at table with guests
of such high quality. They remained standing in
tlie apartment, and acted the part of respectful and
careful attendants on the company. Such were the
manners of the time. The elder dame, contident
through her age and connexion with the Eavens-
wood family, was less scrupulously ceremonious.
She played a mixed part betwixt that of the hostess
of an inn, and the mistress of a private house, who
receives guests above her own degree. She rec-
ommended, and even pressed, what she thought
best, and was herself easily entreated to take a
moderate share of the good cheer, in order to en-
courage her guests by her own example. Often
she interrupted herself, to express her regret that
" my Lord did not eat — that the Master was pyking
a bare bane — that, to be sure, there was naething
there fit to set before their honours — that Lord
Allan, rest his saul, used to like a pouthered guse,
and said it was Latin for a tass 0' brandy — that the
brandy came frae France direct ; for, for a' the
English laws and gangers, the Wolf's-hope brigs
hadna forgotten the gate to Dunkirk."

Here the cooper admonished his mother-in-law
with his elbow, which procured him the following
special notice in the progress of her speech.

" Ye needua be dunshin that gate, John," con-
tinued the old lady ; " naebody says that ye ken
whar the brandy comes frae ; and it wadna be fit-
ting ye should, and you the queen's cooper ; and
what signities't," continued she, addressing Lord

366 TALES OF MY LA^'DLORD.

Eavenswood, "to king, queen, or keiser, whar an
auld wife like me buys her pickle sneeshin, or her
drap brandy-wine, to haud her heart up ? "

Having thus extricated herself from her supposed
false step. Dame Loup-the-dyke proceeded, during
the rest of the evening, to supply, with great ani-
mation, and very little assistance from her guests,
the funds necessary for the support of the conver-
sation, until, declining any further circulation of
their glass, her guests requested her permission to
retire to their apartments.

The Marquis occupied the chamber of dais, which,
in every house above the rank of a mere cottage,
was kept sacred for such high occasions as the pres-
ent. The modern finishing with plaster was then
unknown, and tapestry was confined to the houses
of the nobility and superior gentry. The cooper,
therefore, who was a man of some vanity, as well
as some wealth, had imitated the fashion observed
by the inferior landholders and clergy, who usually
ornamented their state apartments with hangings
of a sort of stamped leather, manufactured in the
Netherlands, garnished with trees and animals ex-
ecuted in copper foil, and with many a pithy sen-
tence of morality, which, although couched in Low
Dutch, were perhaps as much attended to in practice
as if written in broad Scotch. The whole had some-
what of a gloomy aspect ; but the fire, composed of
old pitch-barrel staves, blazed merrily up the chim-
ney ; the bed was decorated with linen of most fresh
and dazzling whiteness, which had never before been
used, and might, perhaps, have never been used at
all, but for this high occasion. On the toilette be-
side, stood an old-fashioned mirror, in a fillagree
frame, part of the dispersed finery of the neighbour-

THE BRIDE OF LAMMEllMOOR. 367

ing castle. It was flanked by a long-necked bottle
of Jbloreuce wine, by which stood a glass nearly as
tall, resembling in shape that which Teniers usually
places in the hands of his own portrait, when he
paints himself as mingling in the revels of a country
villa^^e. To counterbalance those foreign centinels,
there mounted guard on the other side of the mir-
ror two stout warders of Scottish lineage ; a jug,
namely, of double ale, which held a Scotch pint,
and a quegh, or bicker, of ivory and ebony, hooped
with silver, the work of John Girder's own hands,
and the pride of his heart. Besides these prepara-
tions against thirst, there was a goodly diet-loaf, or
sweet cake ; so that, with such auxiliaries, the apart-
ment seemed victualled against a siege of two or
three days.

It only remains to say, that the Marquis's valet
was in attendance, displaying his master's brocaded
night-gown, and richly embroidered velvet cap, lined
and faced with Brussels lace, upon a huge leathern
easy chair, wheeled round so as to have the full ad-
vantage of the comfortable fire which we have al-
ready mentioned. We therefore commit that eminent
person to his night's repose, trusting he profited by
the ample preparations made for his accommoda-
tion,— preparations which we have mentioned in
detail, as illustrative of ancient Scottish manners.

It is not necessary we should be equally minute
in describing the sleeping apartment of the Master
of Eavenswood, which was that usually occupied
by the goodman and good wife themselves. It was
comfortably hung with a sort of warm-coloured
worsted, manufactured in Scotland, approaching in
texture to what is now called shaloon. A staring
picture of John Girder himself ornamented this

368 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

dormitory, painted by a starving Frenchman, who
had, God knows how or why, strolled over from
Flushing or Dunkirk to Wolf's-hope in a smuggling
dogger. The features were, indeed, those of the
stubborn, opinionative, yet sensible artisan, but
Monsieur had contrived to throw a French grace
into the look and manner, so utterly inconsistent
with the dogged gravity of the original, that it was
impossible to look at it without laughing. John
and his family, however, piqued themselves not a
little upon this picture, and were proportionably
censured by the neighbourhood, who pronounced
that the cooper, in sitting for the same, and yet
more in presuming to hang it up in his bedcham-
ber, had exceeded his privilege as the richest man
of the village ; at once stept beyond the bounds of
his own rank, and encroached upon those of the
superior orders ; and, in fine, had been guilty of a
very overweening act of vanity and presumption.
Eespect for the memory of my deceased friend, Mr.
Richard Tinto, has obliged me to treat this matter
at some length ; but I spare the reader his prolix,
though curious observations, as well upon the char-
acter of the French school, as upon the state of
painting in Scotland, at the beginning of the eigh-
teenth century.

The other preparations of the Master's sleeping
apartment, were similar to those in the chamber of
dais.

At the usual early hour of that period, the Mar-
quis of A and his kinsman prepared to resume

their journey. This could not be done without an
ample breakfast, in which cold meat and hot meat,
and oatmeal flummery, wine and spirits, and milk
varied by every possible mode of preparation, evinced

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 369

the same desire to do honour to their guests, which
had been shown by the hospitable owners of the
mansion upon the evening before. All the bustle
of preparation for departure now resounded through
Wolf's-hope. There was paying of bills and shak-
ing of hands, and saddling of horses, and harnessing
of carriages, and distributing of drink-money. The
Marquis left a broad piece for the gratification of
John Girder's household, which he, the said John,
was for some time disposed to convert to his own
use ; Dingwall the writer assuring him he was justi-
fied in so doing, seeing he was the disburser of those
expenses which were the occasion of the gratifica-
tion. But, notwithstanding this legal authority,
John could not find in his heart to dim the splen-
dour of his late hospitality, by pocketing any thing
in the nature of a gratuity. He only assured his
menials he would consider them as a damned un-
grateful pack, if they bought a gill of brandy
elsewhere than out of his own stores ; and as the
drink-money was likely to go to its legitimate use,
he comforted himself that, in this manner, the Mar-
quis's donative would, without any impeachment of
credit and character, come ultimately into his own
exclusive possession.

AVhile arrangements were making for departure,
Eavenswood made blithe the heart of his ancient
butler, by informing him, cautiously however, (for
he knew Caleb's warmth of imagination,) of the
probable change which was about to take place in
his fortunes. He deposited with Balderstone, at the
same time, the greater part of his slender funds,
with an assurance, which he was obliged to reiterate
more than once, thiit he himself had sufficient sup-
plies in certain prospect. He, tlierefore, enjoined
24

370 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

Caleb, as he valued his favour, to desist from all
farther manoeuvres against the inhabitants of Wolf's-
hope, their cellars, poultry-yards, and substance
whatsoever. In this prohibition, the old domestic
acquiesced more readily than his master expected.

" It was doubtless," he said, " a shame, a discredit,
and a sin, to harry the puir creatures, when the fam-
ily were in circumstances to live honourably on their
ain means ; and there might be wisdom," he added,
" in giving them a whiles breathing time at any rate,
that they might be the more readily brought for-
ward upon his honour's future occasions."

This matter being settled, and having taken an af-
fectionate farewell of his old domestic, the Master
rejoined his noble relative, who was now ready to en-
ter his carriage. The two landladies, old and young,
having received in all kindly greeting, a kiss from
each of their noble guests, stood simpering at
the door of their house, as the coach-and-six, fol-
lowed by its train of clattering horsemen, thun-
dered out of the village. John Girder also stood
upon his threshold, now looking at his honoured
right hand, which had been so lately shaken by a
marquis and a lord, and now giving a glance into
the interior of his mansion, which manifested all
the disarray of the late revel, as if balancing the dis-
tinction which he had attained with the expenses of
the entertainment.

At length he opened his oracular jaws. " Let
every man and woman here set about their ain busi-
ness, as if there was nae sic thing as marquis or
master, duke or drake, laird or lord, in this world.
Let the house be redd up, the broken meat set by,
and if there is ony thing totally uneatable, let it be
gien to the puir folk ; and, gudemother and wife, I

THE BRIDE OE LAMMERMOOR. 37 1

hae just ae thing to entreat ye, that ye will never
speak to me a single word, good or bad, anent a' this
nonsense wark, but keep a' your cracks about it to
yoursells and your kimmers, for my head is weel-
nigh dung donnart wi' it already."

As John's authority was tolerably absolute, all
departed to their usual occupations, leaving him to
build castles in the air, if he had a mind, upon the
court favour which he had acquired by the expendi-
ture of his worldly substance.

CHAPTER XXVII.

Why, now I have Dame Fortune by the forelock,
And if she escapes ra\' grasp, the fault is mine ;
He that hath buffeted with stern adversity,
Best knows to shape his course to favouring breezes.

Old Play.

Our travellers reached Edinburgh without any far-
ther adventure, and the Master of Ravenswood, as
had been previously settled, took up his abode with
his noble friend.

In the meantime, the political crisis which had
been expected, took place, and the Tory party ob-
tained, in the Scottish, as in the English councils of
Queen Anne, a short-lived ascendency, of which it is
not our business to trace either the cause or conse-
quences. Suffice it to say, that it affected the dififer-
ent political parties according to the nature of their
principles. In England, many of the High Church
party, with Harley, afterwards Earl of Oxford, at
their head, affected to separate their principles from
those of the Jacobites, and, on that account, ob-
tained the denomination of Whimsicals. The Scot-
tish High Church party, on the contrary, or, as they
termed themselves, the Cavaliers, were more consis-
tent, if not so prudent, in their politics, and viewed
all the changes now made, as preparatory to calling
to the throne, upon the queen's demise, her brother,
the Chevalier de St. George. Those who had suffered
in his service, now entertained the most unreason-

THE BRIDE OF LAAIMERMOOR. 373

able hopes, not only of indemnification, but of venge-
ance upon their political adversaries ; while families
attached to the Whig interest, saw nothing before
them but a renewal of the hardships they had under-
gone during the reigns of Charles the Second and
his brother, and a retaliation of the confiscation
which had been inflicted upon the Jacobites during
that of King William.

But the most alarmed at the change of system,
was that prudential set of persons, some of whom
are found in all governments, but who abound in
a provincial administration like that of Scotland
during the period, and who are what Cromwell called
waiters upon Providence, or, in other words, uniform
adherents to the party who are uppermost. Many
of these hastened to read their recantation to the

Marquis of A ; and, as it was easily seen that

he took a deep interest in the affairs of his kinsman,
the Master of Eavenswood, they were the first to
suggest measures for retrieving at least a part of his
property, and for restoring him in blood against his
father's attainder.

Old Lord Turntippet professed to be one of the
most anxious for the success of these measures ; for
"it grieved him to the very saul," he said, " to see so
brave a young gentleman, of sic auld and undoubted
nobility, and, what was mair than a' that, a bluid

relation of the Marquis of A , the man whom,"

he swore, "he honoured most upon the face of the
yearth, brought to so severe a pass. For his ain
puir peculiar," as he said, " and to contribute some-
thing to the rehabilitation of sae auld ane house,"
the said Turntippet sent in three family pictures
lacking the frames, and six high-backed chairs, with
worked Turkey cushions, having the crest of Ravens-

374 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

wood broidered thereon, without charging a penny
either of the principal or interest they had cost him,
when he bought them, sixteen years before, at a
roup of the furniture of Lord Ravenswood's lodg-
ings in the Canongate.

Much more to Lord Turntippet's dismay than to
his surprise, although he aHected to feel more of the
latter than the former, the Marquis received his gift
very drily, and observed, that his lordship's restitu-
tion, if he expected it to be received by the Master
of Eavenswood and his friends, must comprehend a
pretty large farm, which, having been mortgaged to
Turntippet for a very inadequate sum, he had con-
trived, during the confusion of the family afifairs,
and by means well understood by the lawyers
of that period, to acquire to himself in absolute
property.

The old time-serving lord winced excessively un-
der this requisition, protesting to God, that he saw
no occasion the lad could have for the instant pos-
session of the land, seeing he would doubtless now
recover the bulk of his estate from Sir William Ash-
ton, to which he was ready to contribute by every
means in his power, as was just and reasonable ; and
finally declaring, that he was willing to settle the
land on the young gentleman, after his own natural
demise.

B\it all these excuses availed nothing, and he was
compelled to disgorge the property, on receiving back
the sum for which it had been mortgaged. Having
no other means of making peace with the higher
powers, he returned home sorrowful and malecon-
tent, complaining to his confidents, " that every
mutation or change in the state had hitherto been
productive of some sma' advantage to him in his

THE BRIDE OE LaMMERMOOR. 375

ain quiet affairs ; but that the present had (pize
upon it!) cost him one of the best pen-feathers o'
his wincr."

Similar measures were threatened against others
who had profited by the wreck of the fortune of
Kavenswood ; and oir William Ashton, in particu-
lar, was menaced with an appeal to the House of
Peers against the judicial sentences under which he
held the Castle and Barony of Eavenswood. With
him, however, the Master, as well for Lucy's sake
as on account of the hospitality he had received
from him, felt himself under the necessity of pro-
ceeding with great candour. He wrote to the late
Lord Keeper, for he no longer held that office, stat-
ing frankly the engagement which existed between
him and Miss Ashton, requesting his permission for
their union, and assuring him of his willingness to
put the settlement of all matters between them
upon such a footing, as Sir William himself should
think favourable.

The same messenger was charged with a letter to
Lady Ashton, deprecating any cause of displeasure
which the Master might unintentionally have given
her, enlarging upon his attachment to Miss Ashton,
and the length to which it had proceeded, and con-
juring the lady, as a Douglas in nature as well as in
name, generously to forget ancient prejudices and
misunderstandings ; and to believe that the family
had acquired a friend, and she herself a respectful
and attached humble servant, in him who subscribed
himself Edgar, Master of Eavenswood.

A third letter Eavenswood addressed to Lucy, and
the messenger was instructed to find some secret and
secure means of delivering it into her own hands. It
contained the strongest protestations of continued af-

376 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

fection, and dwelt upon the approaching change of
the writer's fortunes, as chiefly valuable by tending
to remove the impediments to their union. He re-
lated the steps he had taken to overcome the preju-
dices of her parents, and especially of her mother,
and expressed his hope they might prove effectual.
If not, he still trusted that his absence from Scot-
land upon an important and honourable mission
might give time for prejudices to die away ; while
he hoped and trusted Miss Ashton's constancy, on
which he had the most implicit reliance, would
baffle any effort that might be used to divert her
attachment. Much more there was, which, however
interesting to the lovers themselves, would afiford
the reader neither interest nor information. To
each of these three letters the Master of Ravens-
wood received an answer, but by different means of
conveyance, and certainly couched in very different
styles.

Lady Ashton answered his letter by his own mes-
senger, who was not allowed to remain at Eavens-
wood a moment longer than she was engaged in
penning these lines.

For the hand of Mr. Ravenswood of Wolffs Crag —
These :

''Sir, unknown, — I have received a letter, signed
Edgar, Master of Ravenswood, concerning the writer
whereof I am uncertain, seeing that the honours of such
a family were forfeited for high treason in the person of
Allan, late Lord Ravenswood. Sir, if you shall happen
to be the person so subscribing yourself, you will please
to know, that I claim the full interest of a parent in
Miss Lucy Ashton, which I have disposed of irrevocably
in behalf of a worthy person. And, sir, were this other-

1

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 377

wise, I would not listen to a proposal from you, or any
of your house, seeing their hand has been uniformly
held up against the freedom of the subject, and the im-
munities of God's kirk. Sir, it is not a flightering
blink of prosperity which can change my constant
opinion in this regard, seeing it has been my lot be-
fore now, like holy David, to see the wicked great in
power, and flourishing like a green bay tree; neverthe-
less I passed, and they were not, and the place thereof
knew them no more. "Wishing you to lay these things
to 3'our heart for your own sake, so far as they may con-
cern you, I pray 3'ou to take no farther notice of her, who
desires to remain your unknown servant,

"Margaret Douglas,

''otherwise Ashtox."

About two days after he had received this very
unsatisfactory epistle, the Master of Eavenswood,
while walking up the High Street of Edinburgh,
was jostled by a person, in whom, as the man
pulled off his hat to make an apology, he recog-
nised Lockhard, the confidential domestic of Sir
William Ashton. The man bowed, slipt a letter
into his hand, and disappeared. The packet con-
tained four close-written folios, from which, how-
ever, as is sometimes incident to the compositions
of great lawyers, little could be extracted, except-
ing that the writer felt himself in a very puzzling
predicament.

Sir William spoke at length of his high value and
regard for his dear young friend, the Master of
Eavenswood, and of his very extreme high value

and regard for the Marquis of A , his very dear

old friend ; — he trusted that any measures that
they might adopt, in which he was concerned,
would be carried on with due regard to the sane-

378 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

tity of decreets, and judgments obtained in foro con-
tentioso ; protesting, before men and angels, that if
the law of Scotland, as declared in her supreme
courts, were to undergo a reversal in the English
House of Lords, the evils which would thence arise
to the public would inflict a greater wound upon
his heart, than any loss he might himself sustain
by such irregular proceedings. He flourished much
on generosity and forgiveness of mutual injuries, and
hinted at the mutability of human afifairs, always fa-
vourite topics with the weaker party in politics. He
pathetically lamented, and gently censured, the haste
which had been used in depriving him of his situa-
tion of Lord Keeper, which his experience had en-
abled him to fill with some advantage to the public,
without so much as giving him an opportunity of
explaining how far his own views of general politics
might essentially differ from those now in power.
He was convinced the Marquis of A had as sin-
cere intentions towards the public, as himself or any
man ; and if, upon a conference, they could have
agreed upon the measures by which it was to be pur-
sued, his experience and his interest should have
gone to support the present administration. L'pon
the engagement betwixt Ravenswood and his daugh-
ter, he spoke in a dry and confused manner. He re-
gretted so premature a step as the engagement of the
young people should have been taken, and conjured
the Master to remember he had never given any en-
couragement thereunto ; and observed, that, as a
transaction inter minorcs, and without concurrence
of his daughter's natural curators, the engagement
was inept, and void in law. This precipitate mea-
sure, he added, had produced a very bad effect upon
Lady Ashton's mind, which it was impossible at

THE BRIDE OF liAMMERMOOR. 379

present to remove. Her son, Colonel Douglas Ash-
ton, had embraced her prejudices in the fullest ex-
tent, and it was impossible for Sir William to adopt
a course disagreeable to them, without a fatal and
irreconcilable breach in his family ; which was not
at present to be thought of. Time, the great physi-
cian, he hoped, would mend all.

In a postscript. Sir William said something more
explicitly, which seemed to intimate, that rather
than the law of Scotland should sustain a severe
wound through his sides, by a reversal of the judg-
ment of her supreme courts, in the case of the
Barony of Eavenswood, through the intervention of
what, with all submission, he must term a foreign
court of appeal, he himself would extrajudicially
consent to considerable sacrifices.

From Lucy Ashton, by some unknown convey-
ance, the Master received the following lines : —

"1 received yours, but it was at the utmost risk; do
not attempt to write again till better times. I am sore
beset, but I will be true to my word, while the exercise
of my reason is vouchsafed to me. That you are happy
and prosperous is some consolation, and ray situation
reijuires it all."

The note was signed L. A.

This letter filled Ravenswood with the most
lively alarm. He made many attempts, notwitb-
standing her prohibition, to convey letters to Miss
Ashton, and even to obtain an interview ; but his
plans were frustrated, and he had only the mortifi-
cation to learn, that anxious and effectual precau-
tions had been taken to prevent the possibility of
their correspondence. The Master was the more
distressed by these circumstances, as it became im-

38o TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

possible to delay his departure from Scotland, upon
the important mission which had been confided to
him. Before his departure, he put Sir "William
Ashton's letter into the hands of the Marquis of
A , who observed with a smile, that Sir Wil-
liam's day of grace was past, and that he had now
to learn which side of the hedge the sun had got to.
It was with the greatest difficulty that Eavenswood
extorted from the Marquis a promise, that he would
compromise the proceedings in Parliament, provi-
ding Sir William should be disposed to acquiesce in
a union between him and Lucy Ashton.

" I would hardly," said the Marquis, " consent
to your throwing away your birth-right in this
manner, were I not perfectly confident that Lady
Ashton, or Lady Douglas, or whatever she calls her-
self, will, as Scotchmen say, keep her threep ; and
that her husband dares not contradict her."

" But yet," said the Master, " I trust your lord-
ship will consider my engagement as sacred ? "

" Believe my word of honour," said the Marquis,
" I would be a friend even to your follies ; and
having thus told you my opinion, I will endeavour,
as occasion offers, to serve you according to your
own."

The Master of Eavenswood could but thank his
generous kinsman and patron, and leave him full
power to act in all his affairs. He departed from
Scotland upon his mission, which, it was supposed,
might detain him upon the Continent for some
months.

CHAPTEE XXYIIL

Was ever woman in this humour wooed''
Was ever woman in this humour wou?
I'll have her.

Richard the Third.

Twelve months had passed away since the Master
of Kavenswood's departure for the Continent, and,
although his return to Scotland had been expected
in a much shorter space, yet the affairs of his
mission, or, according to a prevailing report, others
of a nature personal to himself, still detained him
abroad. In the meantime, the altered state of
affairs in Sir William Ashton's family may be
gathered from the following conversation which
took place betwixt Bucklaw and his confidential
bottle companion and dependent, the noted Cap-
tain Craigengelt.

They were seated on either side of the huge
sepulchral-looking freestone chimney in the low hall
at Girnington. A wood fire blazed merrily in the
grate; a round oaken table, placed between them,
supported a stoup of excellent claret, two rummer
glasses, and other good cheer ; and yet, with all
these appliances and means to boot, the counte-
nance of the patron was dubious, doubtful, and un-
satisfied, while the invention of his dependent was
taxed to the utmost, to parry wliat he most dreaded,
a fit, as he called it, of the sullens, on the part of
his protector. After a long pause, only interrupted

382 TALES OF MY LANDLORD

by the devil's tattoo, which Bucklaw kept beating
against the hearth with the toe of his boot, Craigen-
gelt at last ventured to break silence. " May I be
double distanced," said he, " if ever I saw a man in
my life have less the air of a bridegroom ! Cut me
out of feather, if you have not more the look of a man
condemned to be hanged ! "

" My kind thanks for the compliment," replied
Bucklaw ; " but I suppose you think upon the pre-
dicament in which you yourself are most likely to
be placed ; — and pray, Captain Craigengelt, if it
please your worship, why should 1 look merry,
when I'm sad, and devilish sad too ? "

" And that's what vexes me," said Craigengelt.
" Here is this match, the best in the whole country,
and which you were so anxious about, is on the
point of being concluded, and you are as sulky as
a bear that has lost its whelps."

" I do not know," answered the laird, doggedly,
" whether I should conclude it or not, if it was not
that I am too far forwards to leap back."

" Leap back ! " exclaimed Craigengelt, with a
well-assumed air of astonishment, "that would be
playing the back-game with a witness ! Leap back !
Why, is not the girl's fortune "

" The young lady's, if you please," said Hayston,
interrupting him.

" Well, well, no disrespect meant — Will Miss
Ashton's tocher not weiG;h acjainst anv in Lothian ? "

" Granted," answered Bucklaw ; " but I care
not a penny for her tocher — I have enough of my
own."

" And the mother, that loves you like her own
child ? "

" Better than some of her children, I believe,"

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOK. 383

said Bucklaw, " or there would be little love wared
on the matter."

"And Colonel Sholto Douglas Ashton, who de-
sires the marriage above all earthly things ? "

" Because," said Bucklaw, " he expects to carry
the county of through my interest."

" And the father, who is as keen to see the match
concluded, as ever I have been to win a main ? "

" Ay," said Bucklaw, in the same disparaging
manner, " it lies with Sir "William's policy to secure
the next best match, since he cannot barter his
child to save the great Eavenswood estate, which
the English House of Lords are about to wrench
out of his clutches."

" What say you to the young lady herself ? " said
Craigengelt ; " the finest young woman in all Scot-
land, one that you used to be so fond of when she
was cross, and now she consents to have you, and
gives up her engagement with Eavenswood, you are
for jibbing — I must say, the devil's in ye, when ye
neither know what you would have, nor what you
would want."

" I'll tell you my meaning in a word," answered
Bucklaw, getting up and walking through the
room ; " I want to know what the devil is the
cause of Miss Ashton's changincr her mind so
suddenly ? "

"And what need you care," said Craigengelt,
" since the change is in your favour ? "

" I'll tell you what it is," returned his patron, " I
never knew much of that sort of fine ladies, and I
believe they may be as capricious as the devil ; but
there is something in Miss Ashton's change, a dev-
ilish deal too sudden, and too serious for a mere flisk
of her own. I'll be bound Lady Ashton understands

384 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

every machine for breaking in the human mind, and
there are as many as there are cannon-bits, martin-
gales, and cavessons for young colts."

" And if that were not the case," said Craigen-
gelt, " how the devil should we ever get them into
training at all ? "

" And that's true too," said Bucklaw, suspending his
march through the dining-room, and leaning upon
the back of a chair. — "And besides, here's Eavens-
wood in the way still ; do you think he'll give up
Lucy's engagement ? "

" To be sure he will," answered Craigengelt ;
" what good can it do him to refuse, since he wishes
to marry another woman, and she another man ? "

" And you believe seriously," said Bucklaw,
" that he is going to marry the foreign lady we
heard of ? "

" You heard yourself," answered Craigengelt,
•' what Captain Westenho said about it, and the
great preparation made for their blithesome
bridal."

" Captain Westenho," replied Bucklaw, " has rather
too much of your own cast about him, Craigie, to
make what Sir William would call a ' famous wit-
ness.' He drinks deep, plays deep, swears deep,
and I suspect can lie and cheat a little into the bar-
gain. Useful qualities, Craigie, if kept in their
proper sphere, but which have a little too much
of the freebooter to make a figure in a court of
evidence."

" Well, then," said Craigengelt, " will you believe
Colonel Douglas Ashton, who heard the Marquis

of A say in a public circle, but not aware that

he was within ear-shot, that his kinsman had made
a better arrangement for himself than to give his

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 385

father's land for the pale-cheeked daughter of a
broken-down fanatic, and that Bucklaw was wel-
come to the wearing of Eavenswood's shaughled
shoes."

" Did he say so, by heavens ! " cried Bucklaw,
breaking out into one of those incontrollable fits
of passion to which he was constitutionally subject,
— "if I had heard him, I would have torn the
tongue out of his throat before all his peats and
minions, and Highland bullies into the bargain.
Why did not Ashton run him through the body ? "

" Capote me if I know," said the Captain. " He
deserved it sure enough ; but he is an old man, and
a minister of state, and there would be more risk
than credit in meddling with him. You had more
need to think of making up to Miss Lucy Ashton
the disgrace that's like to fall upon her, than of
interfering with a man too old to fight, and on too
high a stool for your hand to reach him."

" It shall reach him, though, one day," said Buck-
law, " and his kinsman Eavenswood to boot. In the
meantime, I'll take care Miss Ashton receives no
discredit for the slight they have put upon her. It's
an awkward job, however, and I wish it were ended;
I scarce know how to talk to her, — but fill a bum-
per, Craigie, and we'll drink her health. It grows
late, and a night-cowl of good claret is worth all the
considering-caps in Europe."

25

CHAPTEK XXIX.

It was the copy of our conference.
In bed she slept not, for my urging it ;
At board she fed not, for my urging it ;
Alone, it was the subject of my theme ;
In company I often glanced at it.

Comedy of Errors.

The next morning saw Bucklaw, and his faith-
ful Achates, Craigengelt, at Eavenswood Castle.
They were most courteously received by the knight
and his lady, as well as by their son and heir,
Colonel Ashton. After a good deal of stammering
and blushing, — for Bucklaw, notwithstanding his
audacity in other matters, had all the sheepish
bashfulness common to those who have lived little
in respectable society, — he contrived at length to
explain his wish to be admitted to a conference with
Miss Ashton upon the subject of their approaching
union. Sir William and his son looked at Lady
Ashton, who replied with the greatest composure,
" that Lucy would wait upon Mr. Hayston directly.
I hope," she added with a smile, " that as Lucy is
very young, and has been lately trepanned into an
engagement, of which she is now heartily ashamed,
our dear Bucklaw will excuse her wish, that I
should be present at their interview ? "

" In truth, my dear lady," said Bucklaw, " it is
the very thing that I would have desired on my
own account ; for I have been so little accustomed
to what is called gallantry, that I shall certainly

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 387

fall into some cursed mistake, unless I have the ad-
vantage of your ladyship as an interpreter."

It was thus that Bucklaw, in the perturbation of
his embarrassment upon this critical occasion, for-
got the just apprehensions he had entertained of
Lady Ashton's overbearing ascendency over her
daughter's mind, and lost an opportunity of ascer-
taining, by his own investigation, the real state of
Lucy's feelings.

The other gentlemen left the room, and in a short
time. Lady Ashton, followed by her daughter, en-
tered the apartment. She appeared, as he had seen
her on former occasions, rather composed than agi-
tated ; but a nicer judge than he could scarce have
determined, whether her calmness was that of de-
spair, or of indifference. Bucklaw was too much
agitated by his own feelings minutely to scrutinize
those of the lady. He stammered out an uncon-
nected address, confounding together the two or
three topics to which it related, and stopt short be-
fore he brought it to any regular conclusion. Miss
Ashton listened, or looked as if she listened, but
returned not a single word in answer, continuing to
fix her eyes on a small piece of embroidery, on
which, as if by instinct or habit, her fingers were
busily employed. Lady Ashton sat at some dis-
tance, almost screened from notice by the deep em-
brasure of the window in which she had placed her
chair. From this she whispered, in a tone of voice,
which, though soft and sweet, had something in it
of admonition, if not command, — "Lucy, my dear,
remember — have you heard what Bucklaw has
been saying ? "

The idea of her mother's presence seemed to have
slipped from the unhappy girl's recollection. She

388 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

started, dropped her needle, and repeated hastily,
and almost in the same breath, the contradictory
answers, " Yes, madam — no, my lady — I beg par-
don, I did not hear."

" You need not blush, my love, and still less need
you look so pale and frightened," said Lady Ashton,
coming forward ; " we know that maiden's ears must
be slow in receiving a gentleman's language ; but
you must remember Mr. Hayston speaks on a sub-
ject on which you have long since agreed to give
him a favourable hearing. You know how much
your father and I have our hearts set upon an event
so extremely desirable."

In Lady Ashton's voice, a tone of impressive, and
even stern innuendo was sedulously and skilfully
concealed, under an appearance of the most affec-
tionate maternal tenderness. The manner was for
Bucklaw, who was easily enough imposed upon ;
the matter of the exhortation was for the terrified
Lucy, who well knew how to interpret her mother's
hints, however skilfully their real purport might be
veiled from general observation.

Miss Ashton sat upright in her chair, cast round
her a glance, in which fear was mingled with a still
wilder expression, but remained perfectly silent.
Bucklaw, who had in the meantime paced the room
to and fro, until he had recovered his composure,
now stopped within two or three yards of her chair,
and broke out as follows : — "I believe I have been
a d — d fool. Miss Ashton ; I have tried to speak to
you as people tell me young ladies like to be talked
to, and I don't think you comprehend what I have
been saying ; and no wonder, for d — n me if I un-
derstand it myself ! But, however, once for all, and
in broad Scotch, your father and mother like what is

THE BRIDE OE LAMMERMOOR. 389

proposed, and if you can take a plain young fellow
for your husband, who will never cross you in any
thing you have a mind to, I will place you at
the head of the best establishment in the three
Lothians ; you shall have Lady Girnington's lodging
in the Canongate of Edinburgh, go where you
please, do what you please, and see what you please,
and that's fair. Only I must have a corner at the
board-end for a worthless old play-fellow of muie,
whose company I would rather want than have, if
it were not that the d — d fellow has persuaded me
that I can't do without him ; and so I hope you
won't except against Craigie, although it might be
easy to find much better company."

"Now, out upon you, Bucklaw," said Lady Ash-
ton, again interposing, — " how can you think Lucy
can have any objection to that blunt, honest, good-
natured creature, Captain Craigengelt ? "

" Why, madam," replied Bucklaw, " as to Craigie's
sincerity, honesty, and good-nature, they are, I be-
lieve, pretty much upon a par — but that's neither
here nor there — the fellow knows my ways, and
has got useful to me, and I cannot well do without
him, as I said before. But all this is nothing to the
purpose ; for, since I have mustered up courage
to make a plain proposal, I would fain hear Miss
Ashton, from her own lips, give me a plain answer."

" My dear Bucklaw," said Lady Ashton, " let me
spare Lucy's bashfulness. I tell you, in her pre-
sence, that she has alreadv consented to be guided
by her father and me in tliis matter. — Lucy, my
love," she added, with that singular combination of
suavity of tone and pointed energy which we have
already noticed — " Lucy, my dearest love ! speak for
yourself, is it not as -I say ? "

390 TALES OP MY LANDLORD.

Her victim answered in a tremulous and hollow
voice — "I have promised to obey you, — but upon
one condition."

" She means," said Lady Ashton, turning to Buck-
law, " she expects an answer to the demand which
she has made upon the man at Vienna, or Ratisbon,
or Paris — or where is he — for restitution of the
engagement in which he had the art to involve her.
You will not, I am sure, my dear friend, think it is
wrong that she should feel much delicacy upon this
head; indeed, it concerns us all."

" Perfectly right — quite fair," said Bucklaw, half
humming, half speaking the end of the old song —

" It is best to be off wi' the old love
Before you be on Avi' the new.

But I thought," said he, pausing, " you might have
had an answer six times told from Ravenswood.
D — n me, if I have not a mind to go and fetch one
myself, if Miss Ashton will honour me with the
commission."

"By no means," said Lady Ashton, "we have
had the utmost difficulty of preventing Douglas,
(for whom it would be more proper,) from taking
so rash a step ; and do you think we could permit
you, my good friend, almost equally dear to us, to
go to a desperate man upon an errand so desperate ?
In fact, all the friends of the family are of opinion,
and my dear Lucy herself ought so to think, that,
as this imworthy person has returned no answer to
her letter, silence must on this, as in other cases,
be held to give consent, and a contract must be
supposed to be given up, when the partv waives
insisting upon it. Sir William, who should know

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 391

best, is clear upon this subject ; and therefore, my
dear Lucy "

" Madam," said Lucy, with unwonted energy,
" urge me no farther — if this unliappy engagement
be restored, I have ah'eady said you shall dispose
of me as you will — till then I should commit a
heavy sin in the sight of God and man, in doing
what you require."

" But, my love, if this man remains obstinately
silent"

"He will not be silent," answered Lucy; " it is
six weeks since I sent him a double of my former
letter by a sure hand."

" You have not — you could not — you durst not,"
said Lady Ashton, with violence inconsistent with
the tone she had intended to assume ; but instantly
correcting herself, " My dearest Lucy," said she, in
her sweetest tone of expostulation, " how could you
think of such a thing ? "

"No matter," said Bucklaw; "I respect Miss
Ashton for her sentiments, and I only wish I had
been her messenger myself."

" And pray how long. Miss Ashton," said her
mother, ironically, " are we to wait the return of
your Pacolet — your fairy messenger — since our
humble couriers of flesh nnd blood could not be
trusted in this matter ? "

" I have numbered weeks, days, hours, and min-
utes," said Miss Ashton ; " within another week
I shall have an answer, unless he is dead. — Till that
time, sir," she said, addressing Bucklaw, " let me
be thus far beholden to you, that you will beg my
mother to forbear me upon this subject."

" I will make it my particular entreaty to Lady
Ashton," said Bucklaw. " By my honour, madam,

392 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

I respect your feelings ; and, although the prosecu-
tion of this affair be rendered dearer to me than
ever, yet, as I am a gentleman, I would renounce it,
were it so urged as to give you a moment's pain."

" Mr. Hayston, I think, cannot apprehend that,"
said Lady Ashton, looking pale with anger, " when
the daughter's happiness lies in the bosom of the
mother. — Let me ask you. Miss Ashton, in what
terms your last letter was couched ? "

"Exactly in the same, madam," answered Lucy,
" which you dictated on a former occasion."

" When eight days have elapsed, then," said her
mother, resuming her tone of tenderness, " we shall
hope, my dearest love, that you will end this
suspense."

" Miss Ashton must not be hurried, madam,"
said Bucklaw, whose bluntness of feeling did not
by any means arise from want of good-nature —
" messengers may be stopped or delayed. I have
known a day's journey broke by the casting off a
fore-shoe. — Stay, let me see my calendar — the 20th
day from this is St. Jude's, and, the day before, I
must be at Caverton Edge to see the match be-
tween the Laird of Kittlegirth's black mare, and
Johnston the meal-monger's four-year-old colt ; but
I can ride all night, or Craigie can bring me word
how the match goes ; and I hope, in the mean-
time, as I shall not myself distress Miss Ashton
with any further importunity, that your ladyship
yourself, and Sir William, and Colonel Douglas,
will have the goodness to allow her uninterrupted
time for making up her mind."

" Sir," said Miss Ashton, " you are generous."

" As for that, madam," answered Bucklaw, " I
only pretend to be a plain good-humoured young

THE ERIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 393

fellow, as I said before, who will willingly make
you happy if you will permit him, and show him
how to do so."

Having said this, he saluted her with more emo-
tion than was consistent with his usual train of
feeling, and took his leave ; Lady Ashton, as she
accompanied him out of the apartment, assuring
him that her daughter did full justice to the sin-
cerity of his attachment, and requesting him to see
Sir William before his departure, " since," as she
said, with a keen glance reverting towards Lucy,
"against St. Jude's day, we must all be ready to
sign and seal."

" To sign and seal ! " echoed Lucy in a mutter-
ing tone, as the door of the apartment closed —
" To sign and seal — to do and die ! " and, clasping
her extenuated hands together, she sunk back on
the easy-chair she occupied, in a state resembling
stupor.

From this she was shortly after awakened by the
boisterous entry of her brother Henry, who clamor-
ously reminded her of a promise to give him two
yards of carnation ribbon to make knots to his
new garters. With the most patient composure
Lucy arose, and opening a little ivory-cabinet,
sought out the ribbon the lad wanted, measured it
accurately, cut it off into proper lengths, and knot-
ted into the fashion his boyish whim required.

"Dinna shut the cabinet yet," said Henry, " for
I must have some of your silver wire to fasten the
bells to my hawk's jesses, — and yet the new fal-
con's not worth them neither ; for do you know,
after all the plague we had to get her from an
eyry, all the way at Posso, in Mannor Water, she's
going to prove, after all, nothing better than a

3*54 TALES OV MY LANDLORD.

rifler — she just wets her singles in the blood of the
partridge, and then breaks away, and lets her fly ;
and what good can the poor bird do after that, you
know, except pine and die in the first heather-cow
or whin-bush she can crawl into ? "

" Right, Henry — right, very right," said Lucy,
mournfully, holding the boy fast by the hand, after
she had given him the wire he wanted ; " but there
are more riflers in the world than your falcon, and
more wounded birds that seek but to die in quiet,
that can find neither brake nor whin-bush to hide
their heads in."

" Ah ! that's some speech out of your romances,"
said the boy ; " and Sholto says they have turned
your head. But I hear Norman whistling to the
hawk — I must go fasten on the jesses."

And he scampered away with the thoughtless
gaiety of boyhood, leaving his sister to the bitter-
ness of her own reflections.

"It is decreed," she said, "that every living
creature, even those who owe me most kindness,
are to shun me, and leave me to those by whom I
am beset. It is just it should be thus. Alone and
uncounselled, I involved myself in these perils —
alone and uncounselled; I must extricate myself or
die."

CHAPTEE XXX.

What doth eusue
But moody aud dull melancholy,
Kinsman to grim and comfortless despair,
And, at her heels, a huge infectious troop
Of pale distemperatures, aud foes to life ?

Coined (J of Errors.

As some vindication of the ease with which Buck-
law (who otherwise, as he termed himself, was
really a very good-humoured fellow) resigned his
judgment to the management of Lady Ashton, while
paying his addresses to her daughter, the reader
must call to mind the strict domestic discipline,
which, at this period, was exercised over the females
of a Scottish family.

The manners of the country in this, as in many
other respects, coincided with those of France be-
fore the Revolution. Young women of the higher
ranks seldom mingled in society until after mar-
riage, and, both in law and fact, were held to be
under the strict tutelage of their parents, who were
too apt to enforce the views for their settlement in
life, without paying any regard to the inclination of
the parties chiefly interested. On such occasions,
the suitor expected little more from his bride than
a silent acquiescence in the will of her parents; and
as few opportunities of acquaintance, far less of in-
timacy, occurred, he made his choice by the outside,
as the lovers in the Merchant of Venice select the

396 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

casket, contented to trust to chance the issue of the
lottery, in which he had hazarded a venture.

It was not therefore surprising, such being the
general manners of the age, that Mr. Hayston of
Bucklaw, w^hom dissipated habits had detached in
some degree from the best society, should not at-
tend particularly to those feelings in his elected
bride, to which many men of more sentiment, ex-
perience, and rejection, would, in all probability,
have been equally indifferent. He knew what all
accounted the principal point, that her parents and
friends, namely, were decidedly in his favour, and
that there existed most powerful reasons for their
predilection.

In truth, the conduct of the Marquis of A ,

since Eavenswood's departure, had been such as
almost to bar the possibility of his kinsman's union
with Lucy Ashton. The Marquis was Eavenswood's
sincere, but misjudging friend ; or rather, like many
friends and patrons, he consulted what he considered
to be his relation's true interest, although he knew
that in doing so he ran counter to his inclinations.

The Marquis drove on, therefore, with the pleni-
tude of ministerial authority, an appeal to the Bri-
tish House of Peers against those judgments of the
courts of law, by which Sir William became pos-
sessed of Eavenswood's hereditary property. As
this measure, enforced with all the authority of
power, was new in Scottish judicial proceedings,
though now so frequently resorted to, it was ex-
claimed against by the lawyers on the opposite side
of politics, as an interference with the civil judica-
ture of the country, equally new, arbitrary, and
tyrannical. And if it thus affected even strangers
connected with them only by political party, it may

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOUK. 397

be guessed what the Ashton family themselves said
and thought under so gross a dispensation. Sir
William, still more worldly minded than he was
timid, was reduced to despair by the loss by which
he was threatened. His son's haughtier spirit was
exalted into rage at the idea of being deprived of
his expected patrimony. But to Lady Ashton's yet
more vindictive temper, the couduct of Ravenswood,
or rather of his patron, appeared to be an offence
challenging the deepest and most immortal revenge.
Even the quiet and confiding temper of Lucy her-
self, swayed by the opinions expressed by all around
her, could not but consider the conduct of Eavens-
wood as precipitate, and even unkind. " It was my
father," she repeated with a sigh, " who welcomed
him to this place, and encouraged, or at least al-
lowed, the intimacy between us. Should he not
have remembered this, and requited it with at least
some moderate degree of procrastination in the as-
sertion of his own alleged rights ? I would have
forfeited for him double the value of these lands,
which he pursues with an ardour that shows he
has forgotten how much I am implicated in the
matter."

Lucy, however, could only murmur these things
to herself, unwilling to increase the prejudices
against her lover entertained by all around her,
who exclaimed against the steps pursued on his
account, as illegal, vexatious, and tyrannical, re-
sembling the worst measures in the worst times of
the worst Stewarts, and a degradation of Scotland,
the decisions of whose learned judges were thus
subjected to the review of a court, composed indeed
of men of the highest rank, but who were not trained
to the study of any municipal law, and might be

398 TALES OF MY LANDLORD

supposed specially to hold in contempt that of
Scotland. As a natural consequence of the alleged
injustice meditated towards her father, every means
was resorted to, and every argument urged, to in-
duce Miss Ashton to break off her engagement with
Eavenswood, as being scandalous, shameful, and
sinful, formed with the mortal enemy of her family,
and calculated to add bitterness to the distress of
her parents.

Lucy's spirit, however, was high ; and although
unaided and alone, she could have borne much —
she could have endured the repinings of her father
— his murmurs against what he called the tyranni-
cal usage of the ruling party — his ceaseless charges
of ingratitude against Eavenswood — his endless
lectures on the various means by which contracts
may be voided and annulled — his quotations from
the civil, the municipal, and the canon law — and
his prelections upon the patria potestas.

She might have borne also in patience, or re-
pelled with scorn, the bitter taunts and occasional
violence of her brother Colonel Douglas Ashton,
and the impertinent and intrusive interference of
other friends and relations. But it was beyond her
power effectually to withstand or elude the constant
and unceasing persecution of Lady Ashton, who,
laying every other wish aside, had bent the whole
efforts of her powerful mind to break her daughter's
contract with Eavenswood, and to place a perpetual
bar between the lovers, by effecting Lucy's union
with Bucklaw. Far more deeply skilled than her
husband in the recesses of the human heart, she
was aware, that in this way she might strike a blow
of deep and decisive vengeance upon one, whom
she esteemed as her mortal enemy ; nor did she

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 399

hesitate at raising her arm, although she knew that
the wound must be dealt through the bosom of her
daughter. With this stern and fixed purpose, she
sounded every deep and shallow of her daughter's
soul, assumed alternately every disguise of manner
wliich could serve her object, and prepared at
leisure every species of dire machinery, by which
the human mind can be wrenched from its settled
determination. Some of these were of an obvious
description, and require only to be cursorily men-
tioned ; others were characteristic of the time, the
country, and the persons engaged in this singular
drama.

It was of the last consequence, that all intercourse
betwixt the lovers should be stopped, and, by dint
of gold and authority, Lady Ashton contrived to
possess herself of such a complete command of all
who were pla(;ed around her daughter, that, in fact,
no leaguered fortress was ever more completely
blockaded ; while, at the same time, to all outward
appearance. Miss Ashton lay under no restriction.
The verge of her parents' domains became, in re-
spect to her, like the viewless and enchanted line
drawn around a fairy castle, where nothing unper-
mitted can either enter from without, or escape
from within. Thus every letter, in which Ravens-
wood conveyed to Lucy Ashton the indispensable
reasons which detained him abroad, and more than
one note which poor Lucy had addressed to him
through what she thought a secure channel, fell
into the hands of her mother. It could not be, but
that the tenor of these intercepted letters, espe-
cially those of Ravenswood, should contain some-
thing to irritate the passions, and fortify the
obstinacy, of her into whose hands they fell ; bm

400 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

Lady Asli ton's passions were too deep-rooted to re-
quire this fresh food. She burnt the papers as
regularly as she perused them ; and as they con-
sumed into vapour and tinder, regarded them with a
smile upon her compressed lips, and an exultation
in her steady eye, which showed her confidence
that the hopes of the writers should soon be ren-
dered equally unsubstantial.

It usually happens, that fortune aids the machi-
nations of those who are prompt to avail themselves
of every chance that offers. A report was wafted
from the Continent, founded, like others of the same
sort, upon many plausible circumstances, but with-
out any real basis, stating the Master of Eavens-
wood to be on the eve of marriage with a foreign
lady of fortune and distinction. This was greedily
caught up by both the political parties, who were
at once struggling for power and for popular fa-
vour, and who seized, as usual, upon the most pri-
vate circumstances in the lives of each other's par-
tisans, to convert them into subjects of political
discussion.

The Marquis of A gave his opinion aloud

and publicly, not indeed in the coarse terms as-
cribed to him by Captain Craigengelt, but in a
manner sufficiently offensive to the Ashtons : — " He
thought the report," he said, " highly probable, and
heartily wished it might be true. Such a match
was fitter and far more creditable for a spirited
young fellow, than a marriage with the daughter
of an old whig lawyer, whose chicanery had so
nearly ruined his father."

The other party, of course, laying out of view
the opposition w^hich the Master of Ravenswood
received from Miss Ashton's family, cried shame

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOK. 401

upon his fickleness and perfidy, as if he had seduced
the young lady into an engagement, and wilfully
and causelessly abandoned her for another.

Sufficient care was taken that this report should
find its way to Eavenswood Castle through every
various channel. Lady Ashton being well aware,
that the very reiteration of the same rumour from
so many quarters could not but give it a semblance
of truth. By some it was told as a piece of ordi-
nary news, by some communicated as serious intel-
ligence ; now it was whispered to Lucy Ashton's ear
in the tone of malignant pleasantry, and now trans-
mitted to her as a matter of grave and serious warning.

Even the boy Henry was made the instrument
of adding to his sister's torments. One morning
he rushed into the room vvith a willow branch in
his hand, which he told her had arrived that instant
from Germany for her special wearing. Lucy, as
we have seen, was remarkably fond of her younger
brother, and at that moment his wanton and thought-
less unkinduess seemed more keenly injurious than
even the studied insults of her elder brother. Her
grief, however, had no shade of resentment ; she
folded her arms about the boy's neck, and saying,
faintly, " Poor Henry ! you speak but what they
tell you," she burst into a flood of unrestrained
tears. The boy was moved, notwithstanding the
thoughtlessness of his age and character. " The
devil take me," said he, " Lucy, if I fetch you any
more of these tormenting messages again ; for I like
you better," said he, kissing away the tears, " than
the whole pack of them ; and you shall have my
grey pony to ride on, and you shall canter him if
you like, — ay, and ride beyond the village, too, if

you have a mind."
26

402 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

" "Who told you," skid Lucy, " that I am not
permitted to ride where I please ? "

" That's a secret," said the boy ; " but you will
find you can never ride beyond the village but your
horse will cast a shoe, or fall lame, or the castle
bell will ring, or something will happen to bring
you back. — But if I tell you more of these things,
Douglas will not get me the pair of colours they
have promised me, and so good-morrow to you."

This dialogue plunged Lucy in still deeper de-
jection, as it tended to show her plainly what she
had for some time suspected, that she was little
better than a prisoner at large in her father's house.
We have described her in the outset of our story
as of a romantic disposition, delighting in tales of
love and wonder, and readily identifying herself
with the situation of those legendary heroines, with
whose adventures, for want of better reading, her
memory had become stocked. The fairy wand,
with which in her solitude she had delighted to
raise visions of enchantment, became now the rod
of a magician, the bond slave of evil genii, serving
only to invoke spectres at which the exorcist
trembled. She felt herself the object of suspicion,
of scorn, of dislike at least, if not of hatred, to her
own family ; and it seemed to her that she was
abandoned by the very person on whose account
she was exposed to the enmity of all around her.
Indeed, the evidence of Kavenswood's infidelity
began to assume every day a more determined
character.

A soldier of fortune, of the name of "Westenho,
an old familiar of Craigengelt's, chanced to arrive
from abroad about this time. The worthy Captain,
though without any precise communication with

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOK. 403

Lady Ashton, always acted most regularly and se-
dulously in support of her plans, and easily pre-
vailed upon his friend, by dint of exaggeration of
real circumstances, and coining of others, to give
explicit testimony to the truth of Ravenswood's
approaching marriage.

Thus beset on all hands, and in a manner re-
duced to despair, Lucy's temper gave way under the
pressure of constant affliction and persecution. She
became gloomy and abstracted, and, contrary to her
natural and ordinary habit of mind, sometimes
turned with spirit, and even fierceness, on those by
whom she was long and closely annoyed. Her
health also began to be shaken, and her hectic cheek
and wandering eye gave symptoms of what is called
a fever upon the spirits. In most mothers this
would have moved compassion ; but Lady Ashton,
compact and firm of purpose, saw these waverings
of health and intellect with no greater sympathy
than that with which the hostile engineer regards
the towers of a beleaguered city as they reel under
the discharge of his artillery ; or rather, she con-
sidered these starts and inequalities of temper as
symptoms of Lucy's expiring resolution ; as the
angler, by the throes and convulsive exertions of
the fish which he has hooked, becomes aware that
he soon will be able to land him. To accelerate
the catastrophe in the present case. Lady Ashton
had recourse to an expedient very consistent with
the temper and credulity of those times, but which
the reader will probably pronounce truly detestable
and diabolical.

CHAPTEE XXXL

In which a witch did dwell, in loathlv weeds,

And wilful want, all careless of her needs;

So choosing solitary to abide,

Far from all neighbours, that her devilish deeds

And hellish arts from people she might liide,

And hurt far off, unknown, whome'er she envied.

Fairy Queen.

The health of Lucy Ashton soon required the
assistance of a person more skilful in the of&ce of
a sick nurse than the female domestics of the
family. Ailsie Gourlay, sometimes called the "Wise
Woman of Bowden, was the person whom, for her
own strong reasons, Lady Ashton selected as an
attendant upon her daughter

This woman had acquired a considerable reputa-
tion among the ignorant by the pretended cures
which she performed, especially in oncomes, as the
Scotch call them, or mysterious diseases, which
baffle the regular physician. Her pharmacopeia
consisted partly of herbs selected in planetary hours,
partly of words, signs, and charms, which some-
times, perhaps, produced a favourable influence
upon the imagination of her patients. Such was
the avowed profession of Lucky Gourlay, which,
as may well be supposed, was looked upon with a
suspicious eye, not only by ht^r neighbours, but
even by the clergy of the district. In private, how-

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 405

ever, she traded more deeply in the occult sciences ;
for, notwithstanding the dreadful punishments in-
flicted upon the supposed crime of witchcraft, there
wanted not those who, steeled by want and bitter-
ness of spirit, were willing to adopt the hateful and
dangerous character, for the sake of the influence
which its terrors enabled them to exercise in the
vicinity, and the wretched emolument which they
could extract by the practice of their supposed
art.

Ailsie Gourlay was not indeed fool enough to
acknowledge a compact with the Evil One, which
would have been a swift and ready road to the
stake and tar-barrel. Her fairy, she said, like Cal-
iban's, was a harmless fairy. Nevertheless, she
" spaed fortunes," read dreams, composed philtres,
discovered stolen goods, and made and dissolved
matches as successfully as if, according to the belief
of the whole neighbourhood, she had been aided in
those arts by Beelzebub himself. The worst of the
pretenders to these sciences was, that they were
generally persons who, feeling themselves odious to
humanity, were careless of what they did to deserve
the public hatred. Eeal crimes were often com-
mitted under pretence of magical imposture ; and
it somewhat relieves the disgust with which we
read, in the criminal records, the conviction of these
wretches, to be aware that many of them merited,
as poisoners, suborners, and diabolical agents in
secret domestic crimes, the severe fate to which
they were condemned for the imaginary guilt of
witchcraft.

Such was Ailsie Gourlay, whom, in order to attain
the absolute subjugation of Lucy Ashton's mind,
her mother thought it fitting to place near her per-

4o6 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

son. A woman of less consequence than Lady
Ashton had not dared to take such a step ; but her
high rank and strength of character set her above
the censure of the world, and she was allowed to
have selected for her daughter's attendant the best
and most experienced sick-nurse " and mediciner "
in the neighbourhood, where an inferior person
would have fallen under the reproach of calling in
the assistance of a partner and ally of the great
Enemy of mankind.

The beldam caught her cue readily and by in-
nuendo, without giving Lady Ashton the pain of
distinct explanation. She was in many respects
qualified for the part she played, which indeed could
not be efficiently assumed without some knowledge
of the human heart and passions. Dame Gourlay
perceived that Lucy shuddered at her external ap-
pearance, which we have already described when
we found her in the death-chamber of blind Alice ;
and while internally she hated the poor girl for the
involuntary horror with which she saw she was
regarded, she commenced her operations by endea-
vouring to efface or overcome those prejudices which,
in her heart, she resented as mortal offences. This
was easily done, for the hag's external ugliness was
soon balanced by a show of kindness and interest,
to which Lucy had of late been little accustomed;
her attentive services and real skill gained her the
ear, if not the confidence, of her patient; and under
pretence of diverting the solitude of a sick room,
she soon led her attention captive by the legends
in which she was well skilled, and to which Lucy's
habits of reading and refiection induced her to " lend
an attentive ear." Dame Gourlay 's tales were at
first of a mild and interestius character —

THE BRIDE OP LAMMERMOOR. 407

Of fays that nightly dance upon the wold,
And lovers doom'd to wander and to weep,
And castles high, where wicked wizards keep
Their captive thralls.

Gradually, however, they assumed a darker and
more mysterious character, and became such as,
told by the midnight lamp, and enforced by the
tremulous tone, the quivering and livid lip, the up-
lifted skinny fore-finger, and the shaking head of
the blue-eyed hag, might have appalled a less credu-
lous imagination, in an age more hard of belief.
The old Sycorax saw her advantage, and gradually
narrowed her magic circle around the devoted vic-
tim on whose spirit she practised. Her legends
began to relate to the fortunes of the Eavenswood
family, whose ancient grandeur and portentous au-
thority, credulity had graced with so many super-
stitious attributes. The story of the fatal fountain
was narrated at full length, and with formidable
additions, by the ancient sibyl. The prophecy,
quoted by Caleb, concerning the dead bride, who
was to be won by the last of the Eavenswoods, had
its own mysterious commentary ; and the singular
circumstance of the apparition, seen by the Master
of Eavenswood in the forest, having partly tran-
spired through his hasty inquiries in the cottage of
old Alice, formed a theme for many exaggerations.

Lucy might have despised these tales, if they had
been related concerning another family, or if her
own situation had been less despondent. But cir-
cumstanced as she was, the idea that an evil fate
hung over her attachment, became predominant over
her other feelings ; and the gloom of superstition
darkened a mind, already sufficiently weakened by
sorrow, distress, uncertainty, and an oppressive sense

4o8 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

of desertion and desolation. Stories were told by
her attendant so closely resembling her own in their
circumstances, that she was gradually led to con-
verse upon such tragic and mystical subjects with
the beldam, and to repose a sort of coniEidence in
the sibyl, whom she still regarded with involuntary
shuddering. Dame Gourlay knew how to avail
herself of this imperfect confidence. She directed
Lucy's thoughts to the means of enquiring into fu-
turity, — the surest mode, perhaps, of shaking the
understanding and destroying the spirits. Omens
were expounded, dreams were interpreted, and other
tricks of jugglery perhaps resorted to, by which the
pretended adepts of the period deceived and fas-
cinated their deluded followers. I find it mentioned
in the articles of dittay against Ailsie Gourlay, —
(for it is some comfort to know that the old hag
was tried, condemned, and burned on the top of
North-Berwick Law, by sentence of a commission
from the Privy Council,) — I find, I say, it was
charged against her, among other offences, that she
had, by the aid and delusions of Satan, shown to a
young person of quality, in a mirror glass, a gentle-
man then abroad, to whom the said young person
was betrothed, and who appeared in the vision to
be in the act of bestowing his hand upon another
lady. But this and some other parts of the record
appear to have been studiously left imperfect in
names and dates, probably out of regard to the
honour of the families concerned. If Dame Gour-
lay was able actually to play off such a piece of
jugglery, it is clear she must have had better as-
sistance to practise the deception, than her own
skill or funds could supply. Meanwhile, this mys-
terious visionary traffic had its usual effect, in un-

THE BRIDE OE LAMMERMOOR. 409

settling Miss Ashton's mind. Her temper became
unequal, her health decayed daily, her manners
grew moping, melancholy, and uncertain. Her
father, guessing partly at the cause of these appear-
ances, and exerting a degree of authority unusual
with him, made a point of banishing Dame Gourlay
from the castle ; but the arrow was shot, and was
rankling barb-deep in the side of the wounded deer.

It was shortly after the departure of this woman,
that Lucy Ashton, urged by her parents, announced
to them, with a vivacity by which they were startled,
" that she was conscious heaven and earth and hell
had set themselves against her union with Eavens-
wood ; still her contract," she said, " was a binding
contract, and she neither would nor could resign it
without the consent of Ravenswood. Let me be as-
sured," she concluded, " that he will free me from
my engagement, and dispose of me as you please, I
care not how. Wlien the diamonds are gone, what
signifies the casket ? "

The tone of obstinacy with which this was said, her
eyes flashing with unnatural light, and her hands
firmly clenched, precluded the possibility of dispute ;
and the utmost length which Lady Ashton's art
could attain, only got her the privilege of dictating
the letter, by which her daughter required to know
of Eavenswood whether he intended to abide l)y, or
to surrender, what she termed, " their unfortunate
engagement." Of this advantage Lady Ashton so
far and so ingeniously availed lierself, that, accord-
ing to the wording of the letter, the reader would
have supposed Lucy was calling upon her lover to
renounce a contract which was contrary to the in-
terests and inclinations of both. Not trusting even
to this point uf deception. Lady Ashton finally de-

410 TALES OF MY LANDLORD,

termined to suppress the letter altogether, in hopes
that Lucy's impatience would induce her to condemn
Eavenswood unheard and in absence. In this she
was disappointed. The time, indeed, had long elapsed,
when an answer should have been received from the
Continent. The faint ray of hope which still glim-
mered in Lucy's mind was wellnigh extinguished.
But the idea never forsook her, that her letter might
not have been duly forwarded. One of her mother's
new machinations unexpectedly furnished her with
the means of ascertaining what she most desired to
know.

The female agent of hell having been dismissed
from the castle. Lady Ashton, who wrought by all
variety of means, resolved to employ, for working
the same end on Lucy's mind, an agent of a very dif-
ferent character. This was no other than the Eev-
erend Mr. Bide-the-bent, a Presbyterian clergyman,
formerly mentioned, of the very strictest order, and
the most rigid orthodoxy, whose aid she called in,
upon the principle of the tyrant in the tragedy : —

I'll Lave a priest sliall preach her from her faith,
And make it sin not to renounce that vow,
Which rd liave broken.

But Lady Ashton was mistaken in the agent she
had selected. His prejudices, indeed, were easily en-
listed on her side, and it was no difficult matter to
make him regard with horror the prospect of a union
betwixt the daughter of a God-fearing, professing,
and Presbyterian family of distinction, with the heir
of a bloodthirsty prelatist and persecutor, the hands
of whose fathers had been dyed to the wrists in the
blood of God's saints. This resembled, in the di-
vine's opinion, the union of a Moabitish stranger

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOll. 411

with a daughter of Zion. But with all the more
severe prejudices and principles of his sect, Bide-
the-bent possessed a sound judgment, and had learnt
sympathy even in that very school of persecution,
where the heart is so frequently hardened. In a pri-
vate interview with Miss Ashton, he was deeply
moved by her distress, and could not but admit the
justice of her request to be permitted a direct commu-
nication with Eavenswood, upon the subject of their
solemn contract. When she urged to him the great
uncertainty under which she laboured, whether her
letter had been ever forwarded, the old man paced
the room with long steps, shook his grey head, rested
repeatedly for a space on his ivory-headed staff, and.
after much hesitation, confessed that he thought hei
doubts so reasonable, that he would himself aid in
the removal of them.

" I cannot but opine, Miss Lucy," he said, " that
your worshipful lady mother hath in this matter an
eagerness, whilk, although it ariseth doubtless from
love to your best interests here and hereafter, — for
the man is of persecuting blood, and himself a perse-
cutor, a cavalier or malignant, and a scoffer, who
hath no inheritance in Jesse, — nevertheless, we
are commanded to do justice unto all, and to fulfil
our bond and covenant, as well to the stranger, as to
him who is in brotherhood with us. Wherefore my-
self, even I myself, will be aiding unto the delivery
of your letter to the man Edgar Eavenswood, trust-
ing that the issue thereof may be your deliverance
from the nets in wliich he hath sinfully engaged
you. And that I may do in this neither more nor
less than hath been warranted by your honourable
parents, I pray you to transcribe, without increment
or subtraction, the letter formerly expeded under the

412 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

dictation of your right honourable mother; and I shall
put it into such sure course of being delivered, that
if, honoured young madam, you shall receive no an-
swer, it will be necessary that you conclude that the
man meaneth in silence to abandon that naughty
contract, which, peradventure, he may be unwilling
directly to restore."

Lucy eagerly embraced the expedient of the wor-
thy divine. A new letter was written in the pre-
cise terms of the former, and consigned by Mr.
Bide-the-bent to the charge of Saunders Moonshine,
a zealous elder of the church when on shore, and,
when on board his brig, as bold a smuggler as ever
ran out a sliding bowsprit to the winds that blow
betwixt Campvere and the east coast of Scotland.
At the recommendation of his pastor, Saunders
readily undertook that the letter should be securely
conveyed to the Master of Eavenswood at the court
where he now resided.

This retrospect became necessary to explain the
conference betwixt Miss Ashton, her mother, and
Bucklaw, which we have detailed in a preceding
chapter.

Lucy was now like the sailor, who, while drifting
through a tempestuous ocean, clings for safety to a
single plank, his powers of grasping it becoming
every moment more feeble, and the deep darkness
of the night only checkered by the flashes of light-
ning, hissing as they show the white tops of the
billows, in which he is soon to be engulfed.

Week crept away after week, and day after day.
St. Jude's day arrived, the last and protracted term
to which Lucy had limited herself, and there was
neither letter nor news of Eavenswood.

CHAPTER XXXIL

How fair these names, how much unlike they looh
To all the blurr'd subscriptions in my book !
The bridegroom's letters stand in row above,
Tapering, yet straiglit, like pine-trees in his grove;
While free and fine the bride's appear below,
As light and slender as her jessamines grow.

Crabbe.

St. Jude's day came, the term assigned by Lucy
herself as the furthest date of expectation, and, as
we have already said, there were neither letters
from, nor news of, Ravenswood. But there were news
of Bucklaw, and of his trusty associate Craigengelt,
who arrived early in the morning for the comple-
tion of the proposed espousals, and for signing the
necessary deeds.

These had been carefully prepared under the re-
visal of Sir William Ashton himself, it having been
resolved, on account of the state of Miss Ashton's
health, as it was said, that none save the parties
immediately interested should be present when the
parchments were subscribed. It was further deter-
mined, that the marriage should be solemnized upon
the fourth day after signing the articles, a measure
adopted by Lady Ashton, in order that Lucy might
have as little time as possible to recede, or relapse
into intractability. There was no appearance, how-
ever, of her doing either. She heard the proposed
arrangement with the calm indifference of despair,
or rather with an apathy arising from the oppressed

414 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

and stupified state of her feelings. To an eye so
unobserving as that of Bucklaw, her demeanour had
little more of reluctance than might suit the char-
acter of a bashful young lady, who, however, he
could not disguise from himself, was complying with
the choice of her friends, rather than exercising any
personal predilection in his favour.

When the morning compliments of the bride-
groom had been paid, Miss Ashton was left for some
time to herself; her mother remarking, that the
deeds must be signed before the hour of noon, in
order that the marriage might be happy.

Lucy suffered herself to be attired for the occa-
sion as the taste of her attendants suggested, and
was of course splendidly arrayed. Her dress was
composed of white satin and Brussels lace, and her
hair arranged with a profusion of jewels, whose
lustre made a strange contrast to the deadly pale-
ness of her complexion, and to the trouble which
dwelt in her unsettled eye.

Her toilette was hardly finished, ere Henry ap-
peared, to conduct the passive bride to the state
apartment, where all was prepared for signing the
contract. " Do you know, sister," he said, " I am
glad you are to have Bucklaw after all, instead of
Eavenswood, who looked like a Spanish grandee
come to cut our throats, and trample our bodies
under foot. And I am glad the broad seas are be-
tween us this day, for I shall never forget how
frightened I was when I took him for the picture of
old Sir j\Ialise walked out of the canvas. Tell me
true, are you not glad to be fairly shot of him ? "

" Ask me no questions, dear Henry," said his un-
fortunate sister ; " there is little more can happen to
make me either glad or sorry in this world."

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 415

"And that's what all young brides say," said
Henry; "and so do not be cast down, Lucy, for
you'll tell another tale a twelvemonth hence — and
I am to be bride's-man, and ride before you to the
kirk, and all our kith, kin, and allies, and all Buck-
law's, are to be mounted and in order — and I am
to have a scarlet laced coat, and a feathered hat, and
a sword-belt, double bordered with gold, and iwint
cVesjJagne, and a dagger instead of a sword ; and I
should like a sword much better, but my father
won't hear of it. All my things, and a hundred be-
sides, are to come out from Edinburgh to-night with
old Gilbert, and the sumpter mules — and I will
bring them, and show them to you the instant they
come."

The boy's chatter was here interrupted by the
arrival of Lady Ashton, somewhat alarmed at her
daughter's stay. With one of her sweetest smiles,
she took Lucy's arm under her own, and led her to
the apartment where her presence was expected.

There were only present. Sir William Ashton,
and Colonel Douglas Ashton, the last in full regi-
mentals — Bucklaw, in bridegroom trim — Craigen-
gelt, freshly equipt from top to toe by the bounty of
his patron, and bedizened with as much lace as
might have become the dress of the Copper Cap-
tain, together with the Rev. Mr. Bide-the-bent ; the
presence of a minister being, in strict Presbyterian
families, an indispensable requisite upon all occa-
sions of unusual solemnity.

Wines and refreshments were placed on a table,
on which the writings were displayed, ready for
signature.

But before proceeding either to business or re-
freshment, Mr. Bide-the-bent, at a signal from Sir

4i6 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

William Ashton, invited the company to join him in
a short extemporary prayer, in which he implored a
blessing upon the contract now to be solemnized be-
tween the honourable parties then present. With
the simplicity of his times and profession, which
permitted strong personal allusions, he petitioned,
that the wounded mind of one of these noble parties
might be healed, in reward of her compliance with
the advice of her right honourable parents ; and
that, as she had proved herself a child after God's
commandment, by honouring her father and mother,
she and hers might enjoy the promised blessing —
length of days in the land here, and a happy por-
tion hereafter in a better country. He prayed
farther, that the bridegroom might be weaned from
those follies which seduce youth from the path of
knowledge ; that he might cease to take delight in
vain and unprofitable company, scoffers, rioters, and
those who sit late at the wine, (here Bucklaw
winked to Craigengelt,) and cease from the society
that causeth to err. A suitable supplication in be-
half of Sir William and Lady Ashton, and their
family, concluded this religious address, which thus
embraced every individual present, excepting Craig-
engelt, whom the worthy divine probably considered
as past all hopes of grace.

The business of the day now went forward ; Sir
William Ashton signed the contract with legal so-
lemnity and precision ; his son, with military non-
clialance; and Bucklaw, having subscribed as rapidly
as Craigengelt could manage to turn the leaves, con-
cluded by wiping his pen on that worthy's new laced
cravat.

It was now Miss Ashton's turn to sign the WTit-
ings, and she was guided by her watchful mother to

THE BKOKHiN COM KAC 1 . — Duwii by 11. iMdcbcili-Kacbuin.

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 417

the table for that purpose. At her first attempt, she
began to write with a dry pen, and when the circum-
stance was pointed out, seemed unable, after several
attempts, to dip it in the massive silver ink-standish,
which stood full before her. Lady Ashton's vigil-
ance hastened to supply the deficiency. I have
myself seen the fatal deed, and in the distinct char-
acters in which the name of Lucy Ashton is traced
on each page, there is only a very slight tremulous
irregularity, indicative of her state of mind at the
time of the subscription. But the last signature is
incomplete, defaced and blotted ; for, while her hand
was employed in tracing it, the hasty tramp of a
horse was heard at the gate, succeeded by a step in
the outer gallery, and a voice, which, in a command-
ing tone, bore down the opposition of the menials.
The pen dropped from Lucy's fingers, as she ex-
claimed with a faint shriek — " He is come — he is
come ! "

27

CHAPTER XXXIII.

This by his tongue should be a Montague !
Fetch me my rapier, boy ;
Now, by the faith and honour of my kin,
To strike him dead I hold it not a sin.

Romeo and Juliet,

Hardly had Miss Ashton dropped the pen, when
the door of the apartment flew open, and the Master
of Ravenswood entered the apartment.

Lockhard and another domestic, who had in vain
attempted to oppose his passage through the gallery
or antechamber, were seen standing on the threshold
transfixed with surprise, which was instantly com-
municated to the whole party in the state-room.
That of Colonel Douglas Ashton was mingled with
resentment ; that of Bucklaw, with haughty and af-
fected indifference ; the rest, even Lady Ashton her-
self, showed signs of fear, and Lucy seemed stiffened to
stone by this unexpected apparition. Apparition it
might well be termed, for Eavenswood had more
the appearance of one returned from the dead, than
of a living visitor.

He planted himself full in the middle of the
apartment, opposite to the table at which Lucy was
seated, on whom, as if she had been alone in the
chamber, he bent his eyes with a mingled expres-
sion of deep grief and deliberate indignation. His
dark-coloured riding cloak, displaced from one
shoulder, hung around one side of his person in
the ample folds of the Spanish mantle. The rest of

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 419

his rich dress was travel-soil'd, and deranged by
hard riding. He had a sword by his side, and pis-
tols in his belt. His slouched hat, which he had
not removed at entrance, gave an additional gloom
to his dark features, which, wasted by sorrow, and
marked by the ghastly look communicated by long
illness, added to a countenance naturally somewhat
stern and wild, a fierce and even savage expression.
The matted and dishevelled locks of hair which
escaped from under his hat, together with his fixed
and unmoved posture, made his head more resemble
that of a marble bust than that of a living man. He
said not a single word, and there was a deep silence
in the company for more than two minutes.

It was broken by Lady Ashton, who in that
space partly recovered her natural audacity. She
demanded to know the cause of this unauthorized
intrusion.

" That is a question, madam," said her son, " which
I have the best right to ask — and I must request of
the Master of Ravenswood to follow me, where he
can answer it at leisure."

Bucklaw interposed, saying, " No man on earth
should usurp his previous right in demanding an
explanation from the Master. — Craigengelt," he
added, in an under tone, "d — n ye, why do you
stand staring as if you saw a ghost ? fetch me my
sword from the gallery."

"I will relinquish to none," said Colonel Ash-
ton, " my right of calling to account the man who
has offered this unparalleled affront to my family."

" Be patient, gentlemen," said Eavenswood, turn-
ing sternly towards them, and waving his hand as
if to impose silence on their altercation. " If you
are as weary of your lives as I am, I will find time

420 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

and place to pledge mine against one or both ;
at present, I have no leisure for the disputes of
triflers."

" Triflers ! " echoed Colonel Ashton, half unsheath-
ing his sword, while Bucklaw laid his hand on the
hilt of that which Craigengelt had just reached him.

Sir William Ashton, alarmed for his son's safety,
rushed between the young men and Eavenswood,
exclaiming, " My son, I command you — Bucklaw,
I entreat you — keep the peace, in the name of the
Queen and of the law ! "

" In the name of the law of God," said Bide-the-
bent, advancing also with uplifted hands between
Bucklaw, the Colonel, and the object of their re-
sentment — " In the name of Him who brought
peace on earth, and good-will to mankind, I im-
plore — I beseech — I command you to forbear
violence towards each other ! God hateth the
bloodthirsty man — he who striketh with the sword,
shall perish with the sword."

"Do you take me for a dog, sir," said Colonel
Ashton, turning fiercely upon him, " or something
more brutally stupid, to endure this insult in my
father's house ? — Let me go, Bucklaw ! He shall
account to me, or, by Heaven, I will stab him where
he stands ! "

" You shall not touch him here," said Bucklaw ;
" he once gave me my life, and were he the devil
come to fly away with the whole house and gen-
eration, he shall have nothing but fair play."

The passions of the two young men thus coun-
teracting each other, gave Eavenswood leisure to
exclaim, in a stern and steady voice, " Silence 1 —
let him who really seeks danger, take the fitting
time when it is to be found ; my mission here will

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 421

be shortly accomplished, — Is that your handwrit-
ing, madam ? " he added in a softer tone, extending
towards Miss Ashton her last letter.

A faltering " Yes," seemed rather to escape
from her lips, than to be uttered as a voluntary-
answer.

" And is this also your handwriting ? " extending
towards her the mutual engagement.

Lucy remained silent. Terror, and a yet stronger
and more confused feeling, so utterly disturbed her
understanding, that she probably scarcely compre-
hended the question that was put to her.

" If you design," said Sir William Ashton, " to
found any legal claim on that paper, sir, do not
expect to receive any answer to an extrajudicial
question."

" Sir William Ashton," said Eavenswood, " I
pray you, and all who hear me, that you will not
mistake my purpose. If this young lady, of her
own free will, desires the restoration of this con-
tract, as her letter would seem to imply — there is
not a withered leaf which this autumn wind strews
on the heath, that is more valueless in my eyes.
But I must and will hear the truth from her own
mouth — without this satisfaction I will not leave
this spot. Murder me by numbers you possibly
may ; but I am an armed man — I am a desperate
man — and I will not die without ample vengeance.
This is my resolution, take it as you may. I will
hear her determination from her own mouth ; from
her own mouth, alone, and without witnesses, will
I hear it. Now, choose," he said, drawing his sword
with the right hand, and, with the left, by the same
motion taking a pistol from his belt and cocking it,
but turning the point of one weapon and the muzzle

422 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

of the other to the ground, — " Choose if you will
have this hall floated with blood, or if you will grant
me the decisive interview with my affianced bride,
which the laws of God and the country alike entitle
me to demand."

All recoiled at the sound of his voice, and the
determined action by which it was accompanied ;
for the ecstasy of real desperation seldom fails to
overpower the less energetic passions by which it
may be opposed. The clergyman was the first to
speak. " In the name of God," he said, " receive
an overture of peace from the meanest of his ser-
vants. What this honourable person demands, al-
beit it is urged with over violence, hath yet in it
something of reason. Let him hear from Miss
Lucy's own lips that she hath dutifully acceded to
the will of her parents, and repenteth her of her
covenant with him ; and when he is assured of this,
he will depart in peace unto his own dwelling, and
cumber us no more. Alas ! the workings of the
ancient Adam are strong even in the regenerate —
surely we should have long suffering with those
who, being yet in the gall of bitterness and bond of
iniquity, are swept forward by the uncontrollable
current of worldly passion. Let, then, the Master
of Eavenswood have the interview on which he in-
sisteth ; it can but be as a passing pang to this
honourable maiden, since her faith is now irrevo-
cably pledged to the choice of her parents. Let it,
I say, be thus : it belongeth to my functions to
entreat your honour's compliance with this healing
overture."

" Never ! " answered Lady Ashton, whose rage
had now overcome her first surprise and terror —
" never shall this man speak in private with my

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 423

daughter, the affianced bride of another ! Pass from
this room who will, I remain here. I fear neither
his violence nor his weapons, though some," she
said, glancing a look towards Colonel Ashton,
" who bear my name, appear more moved by
them."

"For God's sake, madam," answered the worthy
divine, "add not fuel to firebrands. The Master
of Eavenswood cannot, I am sure, object to your
presence, the young lady's state of health being
considered, and your maternal duty. I myself will
also tarry ; peradventure my grey hairs may turn
away wrath."

" You are welcome to do so, sir," said Eavens-
wood ; " and Lady Ashton is also welcome to re-
main, if she shall think proper ; but let all others
depart."

"Eavenswood," said Colonel Ashton, crossing
him as he went out, " you shall account for this ere
long."

" When you please," replied Eavenswood,

" But I," said Bucklaw, with a half smile, " have
a prior demand on your leisure, a claim of some
standing."

" Arrange it as you will," said Eavenswood ;
" leave me but this day in peace, and I will have
no dearer employment on earth, to-morrow, than
to give you all the satisfaction you can desire."

The other gentlemen left the apartment ; but Sir
William Ashton lingered.

" Master of Eavenswood," he said, in a concili-
ating tone, " I think I have not deserved that you
should make this scandal and outrage in my fam-
ily. If you will sheathe your sword, and retire with
me into my study, I will prove to you, by the most

424 TAl.ES OF MY LANDLORD.

satisfactory arguments, the inutility of your present
irregular procedure "

" To-morrow, sir — to-morrow — to-morrow, I
will hear you at length," reiterated Eavenswood,
interrupting him ; " this day hath its own sacred
and indispensable business."

He pointed to the door, and Sir William left the
apartment.

Eavenswood sheathed his sword, uncocked and
returned his pistol to his belt, walked deliberately
to the door of the apartment, which he bolted —
returned, raised his hat from his forehead, and, gaz-
ing upon Lucy with eyes in which an expression of
sorrow overcame their late fierceness, spread his
dishevelled locks back from his face, and said, " Do
you know me. Miss Ashton ? — I am still Edgar
Eavenswood." She was silent, and he went on
with increasing vehemence — "I am still that Edgar
Eavenswood, who, for your affection, renounced the
dear ties by which injured honour bound him to
seek vengeance. I am that Eavenswood, who, for
your sake, forgave, nay, clasped hands in friend-
ship with the oppressor and pillager of his house —
the traducer and murderer of his father."

"My daughter," answered Lady Ashton, inter-
rupting him, " has no occasion to dispute the iden-
tity of your person ; the venom of your present
language is sufficient to remind her, that she speaks
with the mortal enemy of her father."

" I pray you to be patient, madam," answered
Eavenswood ; " my answer must come from her
own lips. — Once more, Miss Lucy Ashton, I am
that Eavenswood to whom you granted the solemn
engagement, which you now desire to retract and
cancel."

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 425

Lucy's bloodless lips could only falter out the
words, "It was my mother."

" She speaks truly," said Lady Ashton, " it ivas
I, who, authorized alike by the laws of God and
man, advised her, and concurred with her, to set
aside an unhappy and precipitate engagement, and
to annul it by the authority of Scripture itself."

" Scripture ! " said Eavenswood, scornfully.

" Let him hear the text," said Lady Ashton, ap-
pealing to the divine, " on which you yourself, with
cautious reluctance, declared the nullity of the pre-
tended engagement insisted upon by this violent
man."

The clergyman took his clasped Bible from his
pocket, and read the following words : " If a woman
vow a vow unto the Lord, and bind herself by a
bond, being in her father's house in her youth ; and
her father hear her vow, and her bond wherewith
she hath bound her soul, and her father shall hold
his peace at her: then all her vows shall stand, and
every vow wherewith she hath bound her soul
shall stand."

" And was it not even so with us ? " interrupted
Eavenswood.

" Control thy impatience, young man," answered
the divine, " and hear what follows in the sacred
text : — ' But if her father disallow her in the day
that he heareth ; not any of her vows, or of her
bonds wherewith she hath bound her soul, shall
stand : and the Lord shall forgive her, because her
father disallowed her.' "

"And was not," said Lady Ashton, fiercely and
triumphantly breaking in, — " was not ours the
case stated in the holy writ? — Will this person
deny, that the instant her parents heard of the

426 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

v^ow, or bond, by which our daughter had bound
her soul, we disallowed the same in the most ex-
press terms, and informed him by writing of our
determination ? "

" And is this all ? " said Eavenswood, looking at
Lucy — " Are you willing to barter sworn faith,
the exercise of free will, and the feelings of mutual
affection, to this wretched hypocritical sophistry ? "

" Hear him ! " said Lady Ashton, looking to the
clergyman — " hear the blasphemer ! "

" May God forgive him," said Bide-the-bent,
" and enlighten his ignorance ! "

" Hear what I have sacrificed for you," said
Eavenswood, still addressing Lucy, " ere you sanc-
tion what has been done in your name. The hon-
our of an ancient family, the urgent advice of my
best friends, have been in vain used to sway my re-
solution ; neither the arguments of reason, nor the
portents of superstition, have shaken my fidelity.
The very dead have arisen to warn me, and their
warning has been despised. Are you prepared to
pierce my heart for its fidelity, with the very
weapon which my rash confidence intrusted to your
grasp ? "

" Master of Eavenswood," said Lady Ashton,
" you have asked what questions you thought fit.
You see the total incapacity of my daughter to an-
swer you. But I will reply for her, and in a man-
ner which you cannot dispute. You desire to know
whether Lucy Ashton, of her own free will, de-
sires to annul the engagement into which she has
been trepanned. You have her letter under her own
hand, demanding the surrender of it ; and, in yet
more full evidence of her purpose, here is the con-
tract which she has this morning subscribed, in

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 427

presence of this reverend gentleman, with Mr.
Hayston of Buckkw."

Raven swood gazed upon the deed, as if petrified.
" And it was without fraud or compulsion," said he,
looking towards the clergyman, " that Miss Ashton
subscribed this parchment ? "

" I vouch it upon my sacred character."

"This is indeed, madam, an undeniable piece of
evidence," said Ravenswood, sternly ; " and it will
be equally unnecessary and dishonourable to waste
another word in useless remonstrance or reproach.
There, madam," he said, laying down before Lucy
the signed paper and the broken piece of gold —
" there are the evidences of your first engagement ;
may you be more faithful to that which you have
just formed. I will trouble you to return the cor-
responding tokens of my ill-placed confidence — I
ought rather to say, of my egregious folly."

Lucy returned the scornful glance of her lover
with a gaze, from which perception seemed to have
been banished ; yet she seemed partly to have un-
derstood his meaning, for she raised her hands as
if to undo a blue ribbon which she wore around
her neck. She was unable to accomplish her pur-
pose, but Lady Ashton cut the ribbon asunder, and
detached the broken piece of gold which Miss Ash-
ton had till then worn concealed in her bosom ; the
written counterpart of the lovers' engagement she
for some time had had in her own possession. "With
a haughty curtsy, she delivered both to Ravens-
wood, who was much softened when he took the
piece of gold.

"And she could wear it thus," he said — speak-
ing to himself — "could wear it in her very bosom
• — could wear it next to her heart — even when —

42.8 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

But complaint avails not," he said, dashing from his
eye the tear which had gathered in it, and resum-
ing the stern composure of his manner. He strode
to the chimney, and threw into the fire the paper
and piece of gold, stamping upon the coals with
the heel of his boot, as if to insure their destruc-
tion. " I will be no longer," he then said, " an
intruder here — Your evil wishes, and your worse
offices, Lady Ashton, I will only return, by hoping
these will be your last machinations against your
daughter's honour and happiness. — And to you,
madam," he said, addressing Lucy, "I have noth-
ing farther to say, except to pray to God that you
may not become a world's wonder for this act of
wilful and deliberate perjury." — Having uttered
these words, he turned on his heel, and left the
apartment.

Sir William Ashton, by entreaty and authority,
had detained his son and Bucklaw in a distant part
of the castle, in order to prevent their again meet-
ing with Eavenswood ; but as the Master descended
the great staircase, Lockhard delivered him a bil-
let, signed Sholto Douglas Ashton, requesting to
know where the Master of Eavenswood would be
heard of four or five days from hence, as the writer
had business of weight to settle with him, so soon
as an important family event had taken place.

"Tell Colonel Ashton," said Eavenswood, com-
posedly, " I shall be found at Wolf's Crag when his
leisure serves him."

As he descended the outward stair which led
from the terrace, he was a second time interrupted
by Craigengelt, who, on the part of his principal,
the Laird of Bucklaw, expressed a hope, that
Eavenswood would not leave Scotland within ten

THE BKIDE OF LAMMERMOOK. 429

days at least, as he had both former and recent civil-
ities for which to express his gratitude.

" Tell your master," said Eavenswood, fiercely,
" to choose his own time. He will find me at Wolf's
Crag, if his purpose is not forestalled."

" My master ? " replied Craigengelt, encouraged
by seeing Colonel Ashton and Bucklaw at the bot-
tom of the terrace ; " give me leave to say, I know
of no such person upon earth, nor will I permit
such language to be used to me ! "

" Seek your master, then, in hell ! " exclaimed
Eavenswood, giving way to the passion he had
hitherto restrained, and throwing Craigengelt from
him with such violence, that he rolled down the
steps, and lay senseless at the foot of them. — "I am
a fool," he instantly added, " to vent my passion
upon a caitiff so worthless."

He then mounted his horse, which at his arrival
he had secured to a balustrade in front of the castle,
rode very slowly past Bucklaw and Colonel Ashton,
raising his hat as he passed each, and looking in their
faces steadily while he offered this mute salutation,
which was returned by both with the same stern
gravity. Eavenswood walked on with equal deli-
beration until he reached the head of the avenue,
as if to show that he rather courted than avoided
interruption. When he had passed the upper gate,
he turned his horse, and looked at the castle with
a fixed eye ; then set spurs to his good steed, and
departed with the speed of a demon dismissed by
the exorcist.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

Who comes from the bridal chamber '^
It is Azrael, the angel of death.

Thalaba.

After the dreadful scene that had taken place at
the castle, Lucy was transported to her own cham-
ber, where she remained for some time in a state
of absolute stupor. Yet afterwards, in the course
of the ensuing day, she seemed to have recovered,
not merely her spirits and resolution, but a sort of
flighty levity, that was foreign to her character and
situation, and which was at times chequered by fits
of deep silence and melancholy, and of capricious
pettishness. Lady Ashton became much alarmed,
and consulted the family physicians. But as her
pulse indicated no change, they could only say that
the disease was on the spirits, and recommended
gentle exercise and amusement. Miss Ashton never
alluded to what had passed in the state-room. It
seemed doubtful even if she was conscious of it, for
she was often observed to raise her hands to her
neck, as if in search of the ribbon that had been
taken from it, and mutter, in surprise and discon-
tent, when she could not find it, " It was the link
that bound me to life."

Notwithstanding all these remarkable symptoms,
Lady Ashton was too deeply pledged, to delay her
daughter's marriage even in her present state of
health. It cost her much trouble to keep up the

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 431

fair side of appearances towards Bucklaw. She
was well aware, that if he once saw any reluctance
on her daughters part, he would break off the
treaty, to her great personal shame and dishonour.
She therefore resolved, that, if Lucy continued
passive, the marriage should take place upon the day
that had been previously fixed, trusting that a
change of place, of situation, and of character, would
operate a more speedy and effectual cure upon the
unsettled spirits of her daughter, than could be at-
tained by the slow measures which the medical men
recommended. Sir William Ashton's views of fam-
ily aggrandisement, and his desire to strengthen
himself against the measures of the Marquis of

A , readily induced him to acquiesce in what he

could not have perhaps resisted if willing to do so.
As for the young men, Bucklaw and Colonel Ash-
ton, they protested, that after what had happened,
it would be most dishonourable to postpone for a
single hour the time appointed for the marriage,
as it would be generally ascribed to their being
intimidated by the intrusive visit and threats of
Eavenswood.

Bucklaw would indeed have been incapable of
such precipitation, had he been aware of the state
of Miss Ashton's health, or rather of her mind.
But custom, upon these occasions, permitted only
brief and sparing intercourse between the bride-
groom and the betrothed ; a circumstance so well
improved by Lady Ashton, that Bucklaw neither
saw nor suspected the real state of the health and
feelings of his unhappy bride.

On the eve of the bridal day, Lucy appeared to
have one of her fits of levity, and surveyed with a
degree of girlish interest the various preparations

432 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

of dress, &c. &c., which the different members of
the family had prepared for the occasion.

The morning dawned bright and cheerily. The
bridal guests assembled in gallant troops from dis-
tant quarters. Not only the relations of Sir Wil-
liam Ashton, and the still more dignified connexions
of his lady, together with the numerous kinsmen
and allies of the bridegroom, were present upon
this joyful ceremony, gallantly mounted, arrayed,
and caparisoned, but almost every presbyterian fam-
ily of distinction, within fifty miles, made a point
of attendance upon an occasion which was consid-
ered as giving a sort of triumph over the Marquis of
A , in the person of his kinsman. Splendid re-
freshments awaited the guests on their arrival, and
after these were finished, the cry was to horse. The
bride was led forth betwixt her brother Henry and
her mother. Her gaiety of the preceding day had
given rise to a deep shade of melancholy, which,
however, did not misbecome an occasion so mo-
mentous. There was a light in her eyes, and a
colour in her cheek, which had not been kindled
for many a day, and which, joined to her great
beauty, and the splendour of her dress, occasioned
her entrance to be greeted with an universal mur-
mur of applause, in which even the ladies could not
refrain from joining. While the cavalcade were
getting to horse, Sir William Ashton, a man of
peace and of form, censured his son Henry for hav-
ing begirt himself with a military sword of prepos-
terous length, belonging to his brother, Colonel
Ashton.

"If you must have a weapon," he said, "upon
such a peaceful occasion, why did you not use the
short poniard sent from Edinburgh on purpose ? "

LUCY b MAU.NUbb.— Drawn by II. MacbtlliKaclHirn

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 433

The boy vindicated himself, by saying it was lost.

" You put it out of the way yourself, I suppose,"
said his father, " out of ambition to wear that pre-
posterous thing, which might have served Sir Wil-
liam Wallace — But never mind, get to horse now,
and take care of your sister."

The boy did so, and was placed in the centre of
the gallant train. At the time, he was too full of
his own appearance, his sword, his laced cloak, his
feathered hat, and his managed horse, to pay much
regard to any thing else ; but he afterwards remem-
bered to the hour of his death, that when the hand
of his sister, by which she supported herself on the
pillion behind him, touched his own, it felt as wet
and cold as sepulchral marble.

Glancing wide over hill and dale, the fair bridal
procession at last reached the parish church, which
they nearly filled ; for, besides domestics, above a
hundred gentlemen and ladies were present upon
the occasion. The marriage ceremony was per-
formed according to the rites of the Presbyterian
persuasion, to which Bucklaw of late had judged
it proper to conform.

On the outside of the church, a liberal dole was

distributed to the poor of the neighbouring parishes,

under the direction of Johnie Mortsheugh, who had

lately been promoted from his desolate quarters at

the Hermitage, to fill the more eligible situation of

sexton at the parish church of Eavenswood. Dame

Gourlay, with two of her contemporaries, the same

who assisted at Alice's late-wake, seated apart upon

a flat monument, or through-stane, sate enviously

comparing the shares which had been allotted to

them in dividing the dole.

" Johnie Mortsheugh," said Annie Winnie, " might
28

434 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

hae minded auld lang syne, and thought of his auld
kimmers, for as braw as he is with his new black
coat. I hae gotten but five herring instead o' sax,
and this disna look like a gude saxpennys, and I
daresay this bit morsel o' beef is an unce lighter
than ony that's been dealt round ; and it's a bit
o' the tenony hough, mair by token that yours,
Maggie, is out o' the back sey."

" Mine, quo' she ? " mumbled the paralytic hag,
" mine is half banes, I trow. If grit folk gie poor
bodies ony thing for coming to their weddings and
burials, it suld be something that wad do them
gude, I think."

" Their gifts," said Ailsie Gourlay, " are dealt
for nae love of us — nor out of respect for whether
we feed or starve. They wad gie us whinstanes
for loaves, if it would serve their ain vanity, and
yet they expect us to be as gratefu', as they ca' it,
as if they served us for true love and liking."

"And that's truly said," answered her companion.

" But, Ailsie Gourlay, ye're the auldest o' us
three, did ye ever see a mair grand bridal ? "

" I winna say that I have," answered the hag ;
"but I think soon to see as braw a burial."

" And that w^ad please me as weel," said Annie
Winnie ; " for there's as large a dole, and folk are
no obliged to girn and laugh, and mak murgeons,
and wish joy to these hellicat quality, that lord it
ower us like brute beasts. I like to pack the dead-
dole in my lap, and rin ower my auld rhyme, —

My loaf in my lap, my penny in my purse,

Tliou art ne'er the better, and I'm ne'er the ■svorse." ^

^ Reginald Scott tells of an old woman who performed so many
cures by means of a charm, that she was suspected of witchcraft.
Her mode of practice being enquired into, it was found, that the

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 435

"That's right, Annie," said the paralytic woman ;
" God send us a green Yule and a fat kirkyard ! "

" But I wad like to ken. Lucky Gourlay, for ye're
the auldest and wisest amang us, whilk 0' these re-
vellers' turns it will be to be streekit first ? "

" D'ye see yon dandilly maiden," said Dame
Gourlay, " a' glistenin' wi' goud and jewels, that
they are lifting up on the white horse behind that
harebrained callant in scarlet, wi' the lang sword
at his side ? "

" But that's the bride ! " said her companion, her
cold heart touched with some sort of compassion ;
" that's the very bride hersell ! Eh, whow ! sae
young, sae braw, and sae bonny — and is her time
sae short ? "

" I tell ye," said the sibyl, " her winding sheet is
up as high as her throat already (u), believe it wha
list. Her sand has but few grains to rin out, and
nae wonder — ■ they've been weel shaken. The leaves
are withering fast on the trees, but she'll never see
the Martinmas wind gar them dance in swirls like
the fairy rings."

" Ye waited on her for a quarter," said the para-
lytic woman, " and got twa red pieces, or I am far
beguiled."

" Ay, ay," answered Ailsie, with a bitter grin ;
" and Sir William Ashton promised me a bonny
red gown to the boot 0' that — a stake, and a chain,
and a tar barrel, lass ! — what think ye o' that for
a propine ? — for being up early and doun late for
fourscore nights and mair wi' his dwining daughter.
But he may keep it for his ain leddy, cummers."

only fee which she would accept of, was a loaf of bread and a
silver penny ; and that the potent charm with which she wrought
80 many cures, was the doggerel couplet in the text.

436 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

"■ I hae heard a sough," said Annie AVinnie, " as
if Leddy Ashton was nae canny body."

" D'ye see her yonder," said Dame Gourlay, " as
she prances on her grey gelding out at the kirk-
yard ? — there's mair o' utter deevilry in that wo-
man, as brave and fairfashioned as she rides yonder,
than in a' the Scotch witches that ever flew by
moonlight ower North-Berwick Law."

" What's that ye say about witches, ye damned
hags ? " said Johnie Mortsheugh ; " are ye casting
yer cantrips in the very kirkyard, to mischieve
the bride and bridegroom ? Get awa hame, for if
I tak my souple t'ye, I'll gar ye find the road faster
than ye wad like."

" Hech, sirs ! " answered Ailsie Gourlay ; " how
bra' are we wi' our new black coat and our weel-
pouthered head, as if we had never kend hunger
nor thirst oursells ! and we'll be screwing up our
bit fiddle, doubtless, in the ha' the night, amang a'
the other elbo'-jiggers for miles round. Let's see if
the pins baud, Johnie — that's a lad."

" I take ye a' to witness, gude people," said
Mortsheugh, " that she threatens me wi' mischief,
and forespeaks me. If ony thing but gude happens
to me or my fiddle this night, I'll make it the black-
est night's job she ever stirred in. I'll hae her be-
fore Presbytery and Synod — I'm half a minister
mysell, now that I'm a bedral in an inhabited
parish."

Although the mutual hatred betwixt these hags
and the rest of mankind had steeled their hearts
against all impressions of festivity, this was by no
means the case with the multitude at large. The
splendour of the bridal retinue — the gay dresses —
the spirited horses — the blithesome appearance of

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 437

the handsome women and gallant gentlemen as-
sembled upon the occasion, had the usual effect
upon the minds of the populace. The repeated
shouts of " Ashton and Bucklaw for ever ! " — the
discharge of pistols, guns, and musketoons, to give
what was called the bridal-shot, evinced the interest
the people took in the occasion of the cavalcade, as
they accompanied it upon their return to the castle.
If there was here and there an elder peasant or his
wife who sneered at the pomp of the upstart family,
and remembered the days of the long-descended
Ravenswoods, even they, attracted by the plentiful
cheer which the castle that day afforded to rich and
poor, held their way thither, and acknowledged,
notwithstanding their prejudices, the influence of
V Amphit Hon ou Von dine.

Thus accompanied with the attendance both of
rich and poor, Lucy returned to her father's house.
Bucklaw used his privilege of riding next to the
bride, but, new to such a situation, rather endea-
voured to attract attention by the display of his
person and horsemanship, than by any attemj^t to
address her in private. They reached the castle
in safety, amid a thousand joyous acclamations.

It is well known, that the weddings of ancient
days were celebrated with a festive publicity re-
jected by the delicacy of modern times. The mar-
riage-guests, on the present occasion, were regaled
with a banquet of unbounded profusion, the relics
of which, after the domestics had feasted in their
turn, were distributed among the shouting crowd,
with as many barrels of ale as made the hilarity
without correspond to that within the castle. The
gentlemen, according to the fashion of the times,
indulged, for the most part, in deep draughts of

438 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

the richest wines, while the ladies, prepared for the
ball which always closed a bridal entertainment,
impatiently expected their arrival in the state gal-
lery. At length the social party broke up at a late
hour, and the gentlemen crowded into the saloon,
where, enlivened by wine and the joyful occasion,
they laid aside their swords, and handed their im-
patient partners to the floor. The music already
rung from the gallery, along the fretted roof of
the ancient state apartment. According to strict
etiquette, the bride ought to have opened the ball,
but Lady Ashton, making an apology on account of
her daughter's health, offered her own hand to Buck-
law as substitute for her daughter's.

But as Lady Ashton raised her head gracefully,
expecting the strain at which she was to begin the
dance, she was so much struck by an unexpected
alteration in the ornaments of the apartment, that
she was surprised into an exclamation, — " Who
has dared to change the pictures ? " ■

All looked up, and those who knew the usual
state of the apartment, observed, w^ith surprise,
that the picture of Sir William Ashton's father was
removed from its place, and in its stead that of old
Sir Malise Ravenswood seemed to frown wrath and
vengeance upon the party assembled below. The
exchange must have been made while the apart-
ments were empty, but had not been observed until
the torches and lights in the sconces were kindled
for the ball. The haughty and heated spirits of the
gentlemen led them to demand an immediate en-
quiry into the cause of what they deemed an aftront
to their host and to themselves ; but Lady Ashton,
recovering herself, passed it over as the freak of a
crazy wench who was maintained about the castle,

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOK. 439

and whose susceptible imagination had been ob-
served to be much affected by the stories which
Dame Gourlay delighted to tell concerning " the for-
mer family," so Lady Ashton named the Eavens-
woods. The obnoxious picture was immediately
removed, and the ball was opened by Lady Ashton,
with a grace and dignity which supplied the charma
of youth, and almost verified the extravagant enco-
miums of the elder part of the company, who ex-
tolled her performance as far exceeding the dancing
of the rising generation.

When Lady Ashton sat down, she was not sur-
prised to find that her daughter had left the apart-
ment, and she herself followed, eager to obviate any
impression which might have been made upon her
nerves by an incident so likely to affect them as the
mysterious transposition of the portraits. Appar-
ently she found her apprehensions groundless, for
she returned in about an hour, and whispered the
bridegroom, who extricated himself from the dan-
cers, and vanished from the apartment. The in-
struments now played their loudest strains — the
dancers pursued their exercise with all the enthu-
siasm inspired by youth, mirth, and high spirits,
when a cry was heard so shrill and piercing, as at
once to arrest the dance and the music. All stood
motionless ; but when the yell was again repeated.
Colonel Ashton snatched a torch from the sconce,
and demanding the key of the bridal-chamber from
Henry, to whom, as bride's-man, it had been in-
trusted, rushed thither, followed by Sir AVilliam
and Lady Ashton, and one or two others, near
relations of the family. The bridal guests waited
their return in stupified amazement.

Arrived at the door of the apartment, Colonel

440 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

Ashton knocked and called, but received no answer
except stifled groans. He hesitated no longer to
open the door of the apartment, in which he found
opposition from something which lay against it.
When he had succeeded in opening it, the body of
the bridegroom was found lying on the threshold of
the bridal chamber, and all around was flooded with
blood. A cry of surprise and horror was raised by
all present ; and the company, excited by this new
alarm, began to rush tumultuously towards the
sleeping apartment. Colonel Ashton, first whis-
pering to his mother, — " Search for her — she has
murdered him ! " drew his sword, planted himself
in the passage, and declared he would suffer no
man to pass excepting the clergyman, and a medi-
cal person present. By their assistance, Bucklaw,
who still breathed, was raised from the ground, and
transported to another apartment, where his friends,
full of suspicion and murmuring, assembled round
him to learn the opinion of the surgeon.

In the meanwhile. Lady Ashton, her husband,
and their assistants, in vain sought Lucy in the
bridal bed and in the chamber. There was no pri-
vate passage from the room, and they began to think
that she must have thrown herself from the window,
when one of the company, holding his torch lower
than the rest, discovered something white in the
corner of the great old-fashioned chimney of the
apartment. Here they found the unfortunate girl,
seated, or rather couched like a hare upon its form
— her head-gear dishevelled ; her night clothes torn
and dabbled with blood, — her eyes glazed, and her
features convulsed into a wild paroxysm of insanity.
When she saw herself discovered, she gibbered,
made mouths, and pointed at them with her bloody

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 441

fingers, with the frantic gestures of an exulting
demoniac.

Female assistance was now hastily summoned ;
the unhappy bride was overpowered, not without the
use of some force. As they carried her over the
tlireshold, she looked down, and uttered the only
articulate words that she had yet spoken, saying,
with a sort of grinning exultation, — " So, you
have ta'en up your bonny bridegroom ? " She was
by the shuddering assistants conveyed to another
and more retired apartment, where she was secured
as her situation required, and closely watched. The
unutterable agony of the parents — the horror and
confusion of all who were in the castle — the fury
of contending passions between the friends of the
different parties, passions augmented by previous
intemperance, surpass description.

The surgeon was the first who obtained some-
thing like a patient hearing ; he pronounced that
the wound of Bucklaw, though severe and danger-
ous, was by no means fatal, but might readily be
rendered so by disturbance and hasty removal.
This silenced the numerous party of Bucklaw's
friends, who had previously insisted that he should,
at all rates, be transported from the castle to the
nearest of their houses. They still demanded, how-
ever, that, in consideration of what had happened,
four of their number should remain to watch over
the sick-bed of their friend, and that a suitable
number of their domestics, well armed, should also
remain in the castle. This condition being acceded
to on the part of Colonel Ashton and his father,
the rest of the bridegroom's friends left the castle,
notwithstanding the hour and the darkness of the
night. The cares of the medical man were next

442 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

employed in behalf of Miss Ashton, whom he pro-
nounced to be in a very dangerous state. Farther
medical assistance was immediately summoned. All
night she remained delirious. On the morning, she
fell into a state of absolute insensibility. The next
evening, the physicians said, would be the crisis of
her malady. It proved so ; for although she awoke
from her trance with some appearance of calmness,
and suffered her night-clothes to be changed, or
put in order, yet so soon as she put her hand to her
neck, as if to search for the fatal blue ribbon, a tide
of recollections seemed to rush upon her, which
her mind and body were alike incapable of bear-
ing. Convulsion followed convulsion, till they
closed in death, without her being able to utter a
word explanatory of the fatal scene.

The provincial judge of the district arrived the
day after the young lady had expired, and executed,
though with all possible delicacy to the afflicted
family, the painful duty of enquiring into this fatal
transaction. But there occurred nothing to explain
the general hypothesis, that the bride, in a sudden
fit of insanity, had stabbed the bridegroom at the
threshold of the apartment. The fatal weapon was
found in the chamber, smeared with blood. It was
the same poniard which Henry should have worn
on the wedding-day, and which his unhappy sister
had probably contrived to secrete on the succeeding
evening, when it had been shown to her among
other articles of preparation for the wedding.

The friends of Bucklaw expected that on his
recovery he would throw some light upon this dark
story, and eagerly pressed him with enquiries, which
for some time he evaded under pretext of weakness.
When, however, he had been transported to his

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 443

own house, and was considered as in a state of
convalescence, he assembled those persons, both
male and female, who had considered themselves
as entitled to press him on this subject, and returned
them thanks for the interest they had exhibited
in his behalf, and their offers of adherence and
support. "I wish you all," he said, " my friends,
to understand, however, that I have neither story
to tell, nor injuries to avenge. If a lady shall
question me henceforward upon the incidents of
that unhappy night, I shall remain silent, and in
future consider her as one who has shown herself
desirous to break off her friendship with me ; in a
word, I will never speak to her again. But if a
gentleman shall ask me the same question, I shall
regard the incivility as equivalent to an invitation
to meet him in the Duke's Walk,^ and I expect
that he will rule himself accordingly."

A declaration so decisive admitted no comment-
ary ; and it was soon after seen that Bucklaw liad
arisen from the bed of sickness a sadder and a wiser
man than he had hitherto shown himself. He dis-
missed Craigengelt from his society, but not without
such a provision as, if well employed, might secure
him against indigence, and against temptation.

Bucklaw afterwards went abroad, and never
returned to Scotland ; nor was he known ever to
hint at the circumstances attending his fatal mar-
riage. By many readers this may be deemed
overstrained, romantic, and composed by the wild
imagination of an author, desirous of gratifying the

^ A walk in the vicinity of Holyrood-house, so called, because
often frequented by the Duke of York, afterwards James II.,
during his residence in Scotland. It was for a long time the
usual place of rendezvous for settling affairs of honour.

444 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

popular appetite for the horrible ; but those who are
read in the private family history of Scotland during
the period in which the scene is laid, will readily
discover, through the disguise of borrowed names and
added incidents, the leading particulars of an ower

TRUE TALE.

CHAPTER XXXV.

Whose mind's so marbled, and his heart so hard,
That would not, wlien tliis huge mishap was heard,
To th' utmost note of sorrow set their song,
To see a gallant, with so great a grace,
So suddenly unthought on, so o'erthrown.
And so to perish, in so poor a place,
By too rash riding in aground unknown !

Poem, in Nisbet's Heraldry, Vol. II.

We have anticipated the course of time to mention
Bucklaw's recovery and fate, that we might not
interrupt the detail of events which succeeded the
funeral of the unfortunate Lucy Ashton. This
melancholy ceremony was performed in the misty
dawn of an autumnal morning, with such moderate
attendance and ceremony as could not possibly be
dispensed with. A very few of the nearest rela-
tions attended her body to the same churchyard to
which she had so lately been led as a bride, with as
little free will, perhaps, as could be now testified by
her lifeless and passive remains. An aisle adjacent
to the church had been fitted up by Sir William
Ashton as a family cemetery ; and here, in a coffin
bearing neither name nor date, were consigned to
dust the remains of what was once lovely, beautiful,
and innocent, though exasperated to frenzy by a
long tract of unremitting persecution. While the
mourners were busy in the vault, the three village
hags, who, notwithstanding the unwonted earliness
of the hour, had snuffed the carrion like vultures,

446 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

were seated on the " through-stane," and engaged
in their wonted unhallowed conference.

" Did not I say," said Dame Gourlay, " that the
braw bridal would be followed by as braw a funeral ? "

" I think," answered Dame Winnie, " there's little
bravery at it; neither meat nor drink, and just a
wheen silver tippences to the poor folk : it was
little worth while to come sae far road for sae
sma' profit, and us sae frail."

" Out, wretch ! " replied Dame Gourlay, " can a'
the dainties they could gie us be half sae sweet as
this hour's vengeance ? There they are that were
capering on their prancing nags four days since, and
they are now gauging as dreigh and sober as oursells
the day. They were a' glistening wi' gowd and sil-
ver — they're now as black as the crook. And Miss
Lucy Ashton, that grudged when an honest woman
came near her, a taid may sit on her coflfin the day,
and she can never scunner when he croaks. And
Lady Ashton has hell-fire burning in her breast by
this time ; and Sir William, wi' his gibbets, and his
faggots, and his chains, how likes he the witcheries
of his ain dwelling-house ? "

"And is it true, then," mumbled the paralytic
wretch, " that the bride was trailed out of her bed
and up the chimley by evil spirits, and that the
bridegroom's face was wrung round ahint him ? "

" Ye needna care wha did it, or how it was done,"
said Ailsie Gourlay ; " but I'll uphaud it for nae
stickit^ job, and that the lairds and leddies ken weel
this day."

" And was it true," said Annie Winnie, " sin ye
ken sae mickle about it, that the picture of Auld Sir

1 Stickit, imperfect.

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 447

Malise Ravens wood came down on the ha' floor, and
led out the brawl before them a' ? "

" Na," said Ailsie ; " but into the ha' came the
picture — and I ken weel how it came there — to gie
them a warning that pride would get a fa'. But
there's as queer a ploy, cummers, as ony o' thae,
that's gaun on even now in the burial vault yonder
— ye saw twall mourners, wi' crape and cloke, gang
down the steps pair and pair ? "

" What should ail us to see them ? " said the one
old woman.

" I counted them," said the other, with the eager-
ness of a person to whom the spectacle had afforded
too much interest to be viewed with indifference.

" But ye did not see," said Ailsie, exulting in her
superior observation, "that there's a thirteenth
amang them that they ken naething about ; and, if
auld freets say true, there's ane 0' that company
that'll no be lang for this warld. But come awa,
cummers ; if we bide here, I'se warrant we get the
wyte 0' whatever ill comes of it, and that gude
will come of it nane o' them need ever think to
see."

And thus, croaking like the ravens when they an-
ticipate pestilence, the ill-boding sibyls withdrew
from the churchyard.

In fact, the mourners, when the service of inter-
ment was ended, discovered that there was among
them one more than the invited number, and the
remark was communicated in whispers to each other.
The suspicion fell upon a figure, which, muffled
in the same deep mourning with the others, was re-
clined, almost in a state of insensibility, against one
of the pillars of the sepulchral vault. The relatives
of the Ashton family were expressing in whispers

448 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

their surprise and displeasure at the intrusion, when
they were interrupted by Colonel Ashton, who, in
his father's absence, acted as principal mourner. " I
know," he said in a whisper, " who this person is ; he
has, or shall soon have, as deep cause of mourning
as ourselves — leave me to deal with him, and do
not disturb the ceremony by unnecessary exposure."
So saying, he separated himself from the group of
his relations, and taking the unknown mourner by
the cloak, he said to him, in a tone of suppressed
emotion, " Follow me."

The stranger, as if starting from a trance at the
sound of his voice, mechanically obeyed, and they
ascended the broken ruinous stair which led from
the sepulchre into the churchyard. The other mourn-
ers followed, but remained grouped together at the
door of the vault, watching with anxiety the motions
of Colonel Ashton and the stranger, who now ap-
peared to be in close conference beneath the shade
of a yew-tree, in the most remote part of the
burial-ground.

To this sequestered spot Colonel Ashton had
guided the stranger, and then turning round, ad-
dressed him in a stern and composed tone. — "I
cannot doubt that I speak to the Master of Eavens-
wood?" No answer was returned. " I cannot doubt,"
resumed the Colonel, trembling with rising passion,
" that I speak to the murderer of my sister ? "

" You have named me but too truly," said Kavens-
wood, in a hollow and tremulous voice.

" If you repent what you have done," said the
Colonel, " may your penitence avail you before God ;
with me it shall serve you nothing. Here," he said,
giving a paper, " is the measure of my sword, and a
memorandum of the time and place of meeting. Sun-

THE BRIDE OF LAMilERMOOK. 449

rise to-morrow morning, on the links to the east of
Wolf's-hope."

The Master of Eavenswood held the paper in his
liand, and seemed irresolute. At length he spoke —
" Do not," he said, " urge to farther desperation a
wretch who is already desperate. Enjoy your life
while you can, and let me seek my death from
another."

" That you never, never shall ! " said Douglas Ash-
ton. " You shall die by my hand, or you shall com-
plete the ruin of my family by taking my life. If
you refuse my open challenge, there is no advantage
I will not take of you, no indignity with which I
will not load you, until the very name of Ravens-
wood shall be the sign of every thing that is dishon-
ourable, as it is already of all that is villainous."

" That it shall never be," said Eavenswood, fiercely;
" if I am the last who must bear it, I owe it to those
who once owned it, that the name shall be extin-
guished without infamy. I accept your challenge,
time, and place of meeting. We meet, 1 presume,
alone ? "

"Alone we meet," said Colonel Ashton, "and
alone will the survivor of us return from that place
of rendezvous."

" Then God have mercy on the soul of him who
falls!" said Eavenswood.

" So be it ! " said Colonel Ashton ; " so far can my
charity reach even for the man I hate most deadly,
and with the deepest reason. Now, break off, for
we shall be interrupted. The links by the sea-shore
to the east of Wolf's-hope — the hour, sunrise —
our swords our only weapons."

"Enough," said the Master, "I will not fail you."

They separated ; Colonel Ashton joining the rest
29

450 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

of the mourners, and the Master of Ravenswood
taking his horse, which was tied to a tree behind
the church. Colonel Ashton returned to the castle
with the funeral- guests, but found a pretext for
detaching himself from them in the evening, when,
changing his dress to a riding habit, he rode to
Wolf's-hope that night, and took up his abode in
the little inn, in order that he might be ready for
his rendezvous in the morning.

It is not known how the Master of Eavenswood
disposed of the rest of that unhappy day. Late at
night, however, he arrived at Wolf's Crag, and
aroused his old domestic, Caleb Balderstone, who
had ceased to expect his return. Confused and
flying rumours of the late tragical death of Miss
Ashton, and of its mysterious cause, had already
reached the old man, who was filled with the ut-
most anxiety, on account of the probable effect these
events might produce upon the mind of his master.

The conduct of Ravenswood did not alleviate his
apprehensions. To the butler's trembling entreaties,
that he would take some refreshment, he at first
returned no answer, and then suddenly and fiercely
demanding wine, he drank, contrary to his habits, a
very large draught. Seeing that his master would
eat nothing, the old man affectionately entreated
that he would permit him to light him to his cham-
ber. It was not until the request was three or four
times repeated, that Ravenswood made a mute sign
of compliance. But when Balderstone conducted
him to an apartment which had been comfortably
fitted up, and which, since his return, he had
usually occupied, Ravenswood stopped short on the
threshold.

" Not here," said he, sternly ; " show me the room

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 451

in which my father died ; the room in which she
slept the night they were at the castle."

"Who, sir?" said Caleb, too terrified to preserve
his presence of mind.

" She, Lucy Ashton ! — would you kill me, old
man, by forcing me to repeat her name ? "

Caleb would have said something of the disrepair
of the chamber, but was silenced by the irritable
impatience which was expressed in his master's
countenance ; he lighted the way trembling and in
silence, placed the lamp on the table of the deserted
room, and was about to attempt some arrangement
of the bed, when his master bid him begone in a
tone that admitted of no delay. The old man re-
tired, not to rest, but to prayer ; and from time to
time crept to the door of the apartment, in order to
find out whether Eavenswood had gone to repose.
His measured heavy step upon the floor was only
interrupted by deep groans ; and the repeated stamps
of the heel of his heavy boot, intimated too clearly,
that the wretched inmate was abandoning himself
at such moments to paroxysms of uncontrolled
agony. The old man thought that the morning,
for which he longed, would never have dawned ;
but time, whose course rolls on with equal current,
however it may seem more rapid or more slow to
mortal apprehension, brought the dawn at last, and
spread a ruddy light on the broad verge of the glis-
tening ocean. It was early in November, and the
weather was serene for the season of the year. But
an easterly wind had prevailed during the night, and
the advancing tide rolled nearer than usual to the
foot of the crags on which the castle was founded.

With the first peep of light, Caleb Balderstone
again resorted to the door of Kavenswood's sleeping

452 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

apartment, through a chink of which he observed
him engaged in measuring the length of two or
three swords which lay in a closet adjoining to the
apartment. He muttered to himself, as he selected
one of these weapons, " It is shorter — let him have
this advantage, as he has every other."

Caleb Balderstone knew too well, from what he
witnessed, upon what enterprise his master was
bound, and how vain all interference on his part
must necessarily prove. He had but time to retreat
from the door, so nearly was he surprised by his
master suddenly coming out, and descending to the
stables. The faithful domestic followed ; and, from
the dishevelled appearance of his master's dress, and
his ghastly looks, was confirmed in his conjecture
that he had passed the night without sleep or re-
pose. He found him busily engaged in saddling his
horse, a service from which Caleb, though with fal-
tering voice and trembling hands, offered to relieve
him. Ravenswood rejected his assistance by a mute
sign, and having led the animal into the court, was
just about to mount him, when the old domestic's
fear giving way to the strong attachment which
was the principal passion of his mind, he flung him-
self suddenly at Ravenswood's feet, and clasped his
knees, while he exclaimed, " Oh, sir ! oh, master •
kill me if you will, but do not go out on this dread-
ful errand ! Oh .! my dear master, wait but this day

— the Marquis of A comes to-morrow, and a'

will be remedied."

"You have no longer a master, Caleb," said Ra-
venswood, endeavouring to extricate himself ; " why,
old man, would you cling to a falling tower ? "

" But I have a master," cried C.'deb, still holding
him fast, "while the heir of Ravenswood breathes,

THE BRIDE OF LAM^lEKxMUOR. 453

I am but a servant ; but I was born your father's —
your grandfather's servant — I was born for the
family — I have lived for them — I would die for
them ! — Stay but at home, and all will be well ! "

" Well, fool ! well ? " said Ravenswood ; " vain old
man, nothing hereafter in life will be well with me,
and happiest is the hour that shall soonest close it ! "

So saying, he extricated himself from the old man's
hold, threw himself on his horse, and rode out at the
gate ; but instantly turning back, he threw towards
Caleb, who hastened to meet him, a heavy purse of
gold.

" Caleb ! " he said, with a ghastly smile, " I make
you my executor ; " and again turning his bridle, he
resumed his course down the hill.

The gold fell unheeded on the pavement, for the
old man ran to observe the course which was taken
by his master, who turned to the left down a small
and broken path, which gained the seashore through
a cleft in the rock, and led to a sort of cove, where,
in former times, the boats of the castle were wont
to be moored. Observing him take this course,
Caleb hastened to the eastern battlement, which
commanded the prospect of the whole sands, very
near as far as the village of Wolf's-hope. He could
easily see his master riding in that direction, as fast
as the horse could carry him. The prophecy at once
rushed on Balderstone's mind, that the Lord of
Ravenswood should perish on the Kelpie's Flow,
which lay half way betwixt the tower and the
links, or sand knolls, to the northward of Wolf's-
hope. He saw him accordingly reach the fatal spot,
but he never saw him pass furtlier.

Colonel Ashton, frantic for revenge, was already
in the field, pacing the turf with eagerness, and

454 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

looking with impatience towards the tower for the
arrival of his antagonist. The sun had now risen,
and showed its broad disk above the eastern sea, so
that he could easily discern the horseman who rode
towards him with speed which argued impatience
equal to his own. At once the figure became in-
visible, as if it had melted into the air. He rubbed
his eyes, as if he had witnessed an apparition, and
then hastened to the spot, near which he was met
by Balderstone, who came from the opposite direc-
tion. No trace whatever of horse or rider could be
discerned ; it only appeared, that the late winds and
high tides had greatly extended the usual bounds of
the quicksand, and that the unfortunate horseman,
as appeared from the hoof-tracks, in his precipitated
haste, had not attended to keep on the firm sands
on the foot of the rock, but had taken the shortest
and most dangerous course. One only vestige of
his fate appeared. A large sable feather had been
detached from his hat, and the rippling waves of
the rising tide wafted it to Caleb's feet. The old
man took it up, dried it, and placed it in his bosom.

The inhabitants of Wolf's-hope were now alarmed,
and crowded to the place, some on shore, and some
in boats, but their search availed nothing. The
tenacious depths of the quicksand, as is usual in
such cases, retained its prey.

Our tale draws to a conclusion. The Marquis of

A , alarmed at the frightful reports that were

current, and anxious for his kinsman's safety, ar-
rived on the subsequent day to mourn his loss ;
and, after renewing in vain a search for the body,
returned, to forget what had happened amid the
bustle of politics and state afiairs.

Not so Caleb Balderstone. If worldly profit

THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 455

could have consoled the old man, his age was better
provided for than his earlier years had ever been ;
but life had lost to him its salt and its savour. His
whole course of ideas, his feelings, whether of pride
or of apprehension, of pleasure or of pain, had all
arisen from his close connexion with the family
which was now extinguished. He held up his head
no longer — forsook all his usual haunts and occu-
pations, and seemed only to find pleasure in mop-
ing about those apartments in the old castle, which
the Master of Ravenswood had last inhabited. He
ate without refreshment, and slumbered without
repose ; and, with a fidelity sometimes displayed
by the canine race, but seldom by human beings,
he pined and died within a year after the catas-
trophe which we have narrated.

The family of Ashton did not long survive that
of Ravenswood. Sir William Ashton outlived his
eldest son, the Colonel, who was slain in a duel in
Flanders ; and Henry, by whom he was succeeded,
died unmarried. Lady Ashton (v) lived to the verge
of extreme old age, the only survivor of the group
of unhappy persons, whose misfortunes were owing
to her implacability. That she might internally
feel compunction, and reconcile herself with Heaven
whom she had offended, we will not, and we dare
not, deny ; but to those around her, she did not
evince the slightest symptom either of repentance
or remorse. In all external appearance, she bore
the same bold, haughty, unbending character, which
she had displayed before these unhappy events. A
splendid marble monument records her name, titles,
and virtues, while her victims remain undistin-
guished by tomb or epitaph.

450 TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

Reader! The Tales of my Lan'dlokd^ are now
finally closed, and it was my purpose to have
addressed thee in the vein of Jedediah Cleishbo-
thara ; but, like Horain the son of Asmar, and all
other imaginary story-tellers, Jedediah has melted
into thin air.

Mr. Cleishbotham bore the same resemblance to
Ariel, as he at whose voice he rose doth to the sase
Prospero ; and yet, so fond are we of the fictions
of our own fancy, that 1 part with him, and all his
imaginary localities, with idle reluctance. I am
aware this is a feeling in which the reader will
little sympathize ; but he cannot be more sensible
than I am, that sufficient varieties have now been
exhibited of the Scottish character, to exhaust one
individual's powers of observation, and that to per-
sist would be useless and tedious. I have the van-
ity to suppose, that the popularity of these Novels
has shown my countrymen, and their peculiarities,
in lights which were new to the Southern reader ;
and that many, hitherto iudifierent upon the sub-
ject, have been induced to read Scottish history,
from the allusions to it in these works of fiction..

I retire from the field, conscious that there re-
mains behind not only a large harvest, but labour-
ers capable of gathering it in. More than one
writer has of late displayed talents of this descrip-
tion ; and if the present author, himself a phantom,
may be permitted to distinguish a brother, or per-
haps a sister shadow, he would mention, in par-
ticular, the author of the very lively work entitled,
" Marriage."

^ [In the magnum 02n(s this valedictory address appears at the
end of " A Legend of Montrose," which forms Vol. XV. of that
edition.]

AUTHOR'S NOTES.

Note I., p. 191. — Raid of Caleb Baldkrstone.

The raid of Caleb Balderstone on the cooper's kitchen has
been universally considered on the southern side of the Tweed
as grotesquely and absurdly extravagant. The author can only
say, that a similar anecdote was communicated to him, with
date and names of the parties, by a noble Earl lately deceased,
whose remembrances of former days, both in Scotland and Eng-
land, while they were given with a felicity and power of hu-
mour never to be forgotten by those who had the happiness of
meeting his lordship in familiar society, were especially invalu-
able from their extreme accuracy.

Speaking after my kind and lamented informer, with the
omission of names only, the anecdote ran thus : — There was a
certain bachelor gentleman in one of the midland counties of
Scotland, second son of an ancient family, who lived on the
fortune of a second son, videlicet, upon some miserably small
annuity, which yet was so managed and stretched out by the
expedients of his man John, that his master kept the front
rank with all the young men of quality in the county, and
hunted, dined, diced, and drank with them, upon apparently
equal terms.

It is true, that as the master's society was extremely amusing,
his friends contrived to reconcile his man John to accept assist-
ance of various kinds under the rose, which they dared not to
have directly offered to his master. Yet, very consistently
with all this good inclination to John, and John's master, it
was thought among the young fo.x-hunters that it would be an
excellent jest, if possible, to take John at fault.

With this intention, and, I think, in consequence of a bet, a
party of four or five of tliese youngsters arrived at the bachelor's

458 AUTHOR'S NOTES.

little mansion, which was adjacent to a considerable village.
Here they alighted a short while before the dinner hour — for
it was j udged regular to give John's ingenuity a fair start —
and, rushing past the astonished domestic, entered the little
parlour ; and, telling some concerted story of the cause of
their invasion, the self-invited guests asked their landlord if he
could let them have some dinner. Their friend gave them a
hearty and unembarrassed reception, and, for the matter of
dinner, referred them to John. He was summoned accord-
ingly — received his master's orders to get dinner ready for
the party who had thus unexpectedly arrived ; and, without
changing a muscle of his countenance, promised prompt
obedience. Great was the speculation of the visitors, and
probably of the landlord also, what was to be the issue of
John's fair promises. Some of the more curious had taken a
peep into the kitchen, and could see nothing there to realize
the prospect held out by the Major-Domo. But punctual as
the dinner hour struck on the village clock, John placed be-
fore them a stately rump of boiled beef, with a proper accom-
paniment of greens, amply sufficient to dine the whole party,
and to decide the bet against those among the visitors who ex-
pected to take John napping. The explanation was the same
as in the case of Caleb Balderstone. John had used the freedom
to carry off the kail-pot of a rich old chutf in the village, and
brought it to his master's house, leaving the proprietor and his
friends to dine on bread and cheese; and, as John said, " good
enough for them." The fear of giving offence to so many per-
sons of distinction kept the poor man sufficiently quiet, and he
was afterwards remunerated by some indirect patronage, so
that the jest was admitted a good one on all sides. In Eng-
land, at any period, or in some parts of Scotland at the present
day, it might not have passed off so well.

Note II., p. 196. — Ancient Hospitality.

It was once the universal custom to place ale, wine, or some
strong liquor, in the chamber of an honoured guest, to assuage
his thirst should he feel any on awaking in the night, which,
considering that the hospitality of that period often reached
excess, was by no means unlikely. The author has met some
instances of it in former days, and in old-fashioned families.
It was, perhaps, no poetic fiction that records how

AUTHOR'S NOTES. 459

" My cummer and I lay down to sleep
With two pint stoups at our bed-feet;
And aye when we waken'd we drank them dry:
What think you 0' my cummer and I? "

It i3 a current story in Teviotdale, that in the house of an
ancient family of distinction, much addicted to the Presby-
terian cause, a Bible was always put into the sleeping apart-
ment of the guests, along with a bottle of strong ale. On some
occasion there was a meeting of clergymen in the vicinity of
the castle, all of whom were invited to dinner by the worthy
Baronet, and several abode all night. According to the fashion
of the time.?, seven of the reverend guests were allotted to one
large barrack-room, which was used on such occasions of ex-
tended hospitality. The butler took care that the divines were
presented, according to custom, each with a Bible and a bottle
of ale. But after a little consultation among themselves, they
are said to have recalled the domestic as he was leaving the
apartment. " My friend," said one of the venerable guests,
"you must know, when we meet together as brethren, the
youngest minister reads aloud a portion of Scripture to the
rest; — only one Bible, therefore, is necessary; take away
the other si.v, and in their place bring six more bottles of ale."

This synod would have suited the " hermit sage " of Johnson,
who answered a pupil who enquired for the real road to happi-
ness, with the celebrated line,

' ' Come, my lad, and drink some beer ! "

Note III., p. 217. — Appeal to Parliament.

The power of appeal from the Court of Session, the supreme
Judges of Scotland, to the Scotti.sh Parliament, in cases of civil
right, was fiercely debated before the Union. It waa a privi-
lege highly desirable for the subject, as the examination and
occasional reversal of their sentences in Parliament, might
serve as a check upon the judges, which they greatly required
at a time when they were much more distinguished for legal
knowledge than for uprightness and integrity.

The members of the Faculty of Advocates, (so the Scottish
barristers are termed,) in the year 1674, incurred the vio-
lent displeasure of the Court of Ses.sion, on account of their
refusal to renounce the right of appeal to Parliament; and, by

46o AUTHOR'S NOTES.

a very arbitrary procedure, the majority of the number were
banished from Edinburgh, and consequently deprived of their
professional practice for several sessions, or terms. But, by
the articles of the Union, an appeal to the British House of
Peers has been secured to the Scottish subject, and that right
has, no doubt, had its influence in forming the impartial and
independent character which, much contrary to the practice of
their predecessors, the Judges of the Court of Session have
since displayed.

It is easy to conceive, that an old lawyer like the Lord
Keeper in the text, should feel alarm at the judgments given
in his favour, upon grounds of strict penal law, being brought
to appeal under a new and dreaded procedure in a Court emi-
nently impartial, and peculiarly moved by considerations of
equity.

In earlier editions of this Work, this legal distinction was
not sufficiently explained.

Note IV., p. 249. — Poor-Man-of-Mdtton.

The blade-bone of a shoulder of mutton is called in Scotland
" a poor man," as in some parts of England it is termed " a poor
knight of Windsor; " in contrast, it must be presumed, to the
baronial Sir Loin. It is said, that in the last age an old Scot-
tish peer, whose conditions (none of the most gentle) were
marked by a strange and fierce-looking exaggeration of the
Highland countenance, chanced to be indisposed while he was
in London attending Parliament. The master of the hotel
where he lodged, anxious to show attention to his noble guest,
waited on him to enumerate the contents of his well-stocked
larder, so as to endeavour to hit on something which might suit
his appetite. " I think, landlord," said his lordship, rising up
from his couch, and throwing back the tartan plaid with which
he had screened his grim and ferocious visage ■ — '"I think I
could eat a morsel of a poor man.'" The landlord fled in terror,
having no doubt that his guest was a cannibal, who might be
in the habit of eating a slice of a tenant, as light food, when he
was under regimen.

EDITOE'S KOTES.

(a) p. XXV. " Law's Memorials." These are " Memorials of
the Memorable Things that fell out within this Island of
Brittain from 1638 to 1684, by the Kev. Robert Law."

All is bot gaistis and elriche fantasyis
Of Brownyis and of bogillis full this buke,

as Gawain Douglas says. Law was Minister of Easter Kirk-
patrick, and was expelled from his living in 1662 for non-
conformity. He did not approve of the rising crushed at
Bothwell Bridge. According to a version of the tragedy in
Sharpe's notes, the bride lay weltering in blood, the bride-
groom was found "in a state of idiotcy." The legend of the
Bride is treated as purely fabiuous in " Lands and Their
Owners in Galloway" (Paterson, Edinburgh 1870, vol. i.
p. 386), where the Dunbars of Baldoon are discussed. Sir
Andrew Agnew, in his " Hereditary Sheriffs of Galloway "
(Black, Edinburgh 1864), gives the facts as he finds them
in local tradition, and discredits the idea that any constraint
was exercised over the Bride in her marriage with Dunl)ar.
Mr. John Murray (jraham, in " Annals of the Viscount and
First and Second Earls of Stair " (Blackwood, Edinburgh
1875, vol. i. p. 43), admits the attachment of the Bride to
Lord Rutherford, and the pressure under which she accepted
Duubar. Tlie Bride was married from Carscreugh Castle, now
in ruins. The marriage contract, now in the Selkirk Papers,
is dated Carscreugh, and signed by the Bride, Janet Dal-
rymple. It may be pointed out that the Elegy on the Bride
makes no allusion to any calamity or extraordinary event,
beyond her illness and death. The Elegy is the only contem-
porary evidence as to the whole aifair.

There exists a possible reference to the death of Stair's
daughter, the original of the Bride, in a letter of Dr. Hickea's

462 EDITOR'S NOTES.

to Pepys, printed, with other correspondence, in appendices to
recent editions of Pej^ys' Diary. Hickes had been Lauderdale's
chaplain, and, in later years, was consulted by Pepys on the
question of second sight and other popular beliefs. He tells
Pepys that Lauderdale repeated to him a strange tale of some
melancholy and almormal event in Stair's family. Stair entered
the room as Lauderdale was talking, and, on his request, told
his own tale, with obvious emotion. This may have been the
true version of the Bride's tragedy. But Covenanting writers
credit another daughter of Stair's with being possessed, and
with the jiower of flying across a room, or even across a garden.
Such things, as in the noted case of the daughter of Shan of
Bargarren, in 1697, were attributed to witchcraft. Possibly
Stair may not have been free from this superstition, and these
may have been the occurrences about which he spoke to Hickes.
Unluckily Dr. Hickes, distrusting his memory of the details,
does not give the narrative to Pepys. Wodrow mentions, in
his "Analecta," a dim and brief traditional version received
through his wife. It is only certain that the Bride, after her
marriage at her father's house of Carsecreugh, on Aug. 12, 1669,
remained there till Aug. 24, when she was taken to Baldoon,
where a masque was acted for her entertainment. She died on
Sept. 12, and was buried on Sept. 30. Baldoon died in 1682,
his rival. Lord Rutherford, in 1685 : he held a commis.siou in
the Household Guards ("Annals of the Viscount and First
and Second Earls of Stair," i. 47, 48).

(b) p. 1. " Punch and his wife Joan." A curious question
for the antiquary arises : When did Joan become Judy ?

(c) p. 18. "The Ape of the renowned Gines de Pass-
amont." For this Ape see " Don Quixote," Pan ii. Book ii.
Chapters viii.-x.

{d) p. 34. " Monkish historians, whose ponderous volumes
formed the chief and most valued contents of a Scottish
historian of the period." " Historian " is clearly a word re-
peated twice by accident. "Library" must be the reading
intended.

(e) p. 38. " A bull's head, the ancient symbol of death,"
as in the capture and murder of the two Douglases in 1439-40
in the Castle of Edinburgh. " The chroniclers tell us that
their doom wa.s symbolically announced, according to a
practice of the time, by putting a bull's bead on the board."
(Hill Burton, ii. 417.)

EDITOR'S NOTES. 463

(/) P- 45. "Condictio indebiti." Indebiti solutio, -svhere
one through error makes payment of what is not due, he may
in certain circumstances recover it by an action, which in
the Roman Law was called condictio indebiti. According to
the law of this country, when a person paj^s money under
mistake, he has no right to recover that money, unless where
it was a mistake in point of fact. If he pays by mistake
in point of law there was at one time a doubt in Westminster
Hall, but it is now settled that he has no right to recover it
again. "Studies in Roman Law, with comparative views of
the Laws of France, England, and Scotland, by Lord Mac-
kenzie," 1862, pp. 226 and 228.

(y) p. 46. "There's bucks and raes on Bilhope braes."
Scott has here adapted and altered an old verse, which ends —

And Tarras for the good bull-trout,
If he is taen in time.

(h) p. 66. " For a Grahame to wear green, a Bruce to
kill a spider, or a St. Clair to cross the Ord on a Monday."
These are the Scottish taboos. That of the Bruces is ac-
counted for l)y a familiar anecdote. In the Celtic "Book
of Honours " is a curious list of taboos imposed on the Irish
kings.

(i) p. 84. " The rancing couplets of poor Lee." From
"The Rival Queens."

(k) p. 161. " The best jeest in a' George Buchanan." George
Buchanan's jests were, and perhaps still are, very ])opular
in a chap-book adorned with a most unseemly frontis])iece,
It is now probably missing from the little shop-windows
which it used to decorate thirty years ago. This George
Buchanan the jester has no real connection with the cele-
brated scholar.

(0 p. 179. "Worthy Mr. Cuffcushion and the Service
Book." On the Service Book see Editor's Introduction to
" Old Mortality." The arguments by which Dr. McCrie
showed that the Service Book was not used in Scotland
during the Restoration seem to have produced no effect
on Scott.

(to) p. 205. "Scot of Scotstarvet." See " Old Mortality,"
VoL I., Note II. (Author's). Sir Walter's edition of the "Stag-
gering State of the Scots Statesmen" is of 1754. The book
deals with the centurv from 1550 to 1650,

464 EDITOR'S NOTES.

(n) p. 209. "The Claim of Right." A declaration hy the
Scotch Estates, April 11, 1689, wherein James VII. was
declared to have forfeited the Crown, and the terms were
set forth on which it was offered to William of Orange.

(0) p. 215. " Debitum fundi." Debitum fundi is a real
debt or lien over land which attached to the land itself into
whose hands soever it may come — such a burden is con-
stituted ex lege, or by paction. Thiis feu duties and arrears
of feu duties due to the superior and the Relief and Non-
Entry duties before Declarator are by law real debts or
debita fundi, which the superior is entitled to make effectual
not only by a personal action against the vassal but by an
action of Poinding against the ground." (Bell's " Law
Dictionary.")

(^p) p. 245. " There was a haggis in Dunbar." Scott's
friend Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, according to Professor
Masson, would "go about the streets, or sit alone in his
room, repeating to himself such scraps as this : —

Hey, the haggis o' Dunbar,

Fatharalinkum feedle.
Mony better, few waur,

Fatharalinkum feedle.

(" Edinburgh Sketches," p. 370.)

The component parts of this notable Haggis, as the song
goes on to declare, were much in the taste peculiar to Swift
and to Sharpe. The delectable ditty is in Sharpe's " Ballad
Book," pp. 69, 70 (edition of 18S0).

(5) p. 254. " Any hare that comes through among the
deer." Witches in all countries have the gift of metamorphos-
ing themselves into certain animals — snakes in Africa, foxes
in Japan, hares in Scotland. Lafitau, an old French mission-
ary, found among the Hurons a story of a witch changed into
a bird, and wounded in that shape, which is a precise parallel
to a Scotch story of a wounded witch hare. The belief is not
extinct in the Highlands. A boatman from Badenoch told
the following tale. " Every morning the witch would put on
the shape of a hare and run before a shepherd's dogs, and lead
them away from the sheep He knew that the best plan was
to shoot at her with a crooked sixpence " (as Henry Ashton,
in the text, suggests a silver button), "and he hit her on the
bind leg, and the dogs were after her, and chased the old

EDITOR'S NOTES. 465

woman into the witch's cottage. The shepherd ran after them,
and found th -m tearing at the old woman ; but the hare was
twisted round their necks, and she was crying, ' Tighten, hare,
tighten 1 ' and it was choking them." It is fair to add that
the boatman had no belief in this adventure, but told it as
an example of surviving superstitions. The silver bullet is
familiar in the case of Dundee.

Archbishop Sharpe's life was also proof against lead, accord-
ing to his murderers.

(r) p. 298. " Running footmen." A curious example of
their speed is given by Wodrow in a story of Archbishop
Sharpe's wraith. Sharpe was in Edinburgh, and wanted some
papers which he had left in the bureau of his study at St.
Andrews. He lived in an old house, a relic of the conventual
establishment, whereof one gateway may still be seen on the
right-hand side of the road from St. Leonard's to the harbour.
He therefore sent his running footman to St. Andrews for the
papers, and the man, leaving Edinburgh at ten in the morning,
reached the Palace at four in the afternoon. The distance is
forty-two miles, and there is the Firth of Forth to cross by
boat. The pace, therefore, is excellent. When the footman
opened the door of the study, he saw the Archbishop i=eated at
the bureau. " You have ridden fast, my lord," he said ; " I
did not see you pass me on the way 1 " The appearance rose,
with a forbiddinij countenance, and walked to the stairs, where
the steward also saw it. Then it vanished. Wodrow has a
tale of a ghost in the same house which frightened Sharpe's
successor.

(s) p. 323. Festivities at t'ne Dirgie, or Wake. These are
still customary in parts of Scotland. There is a story of a
man who, after drinking well at the funeral feast, arose and
proposed " the health of the Bride and Bridegroom." Some
one pulled him down. " Man, do ye no ken where ye are?"
"Weel, be it bridal or be it burial, it's (jrand!" Another
worthy, in the spirit of Ailsie Gourlay, remarked that a bridal
was all very well, "but gie me a gude solid burial."

{t) p. 357. " Selkirk bannocks, sweet scones, cookies, and
petticoat-tails — delicacies little known to the present genera-
tion." "Petticoat-tails" are perhaps now "little known," but
sweet scones and cookies, or buns, hold their own, and Selkirk
bannocks maintain their justly high repute. But Sir Walter

466 EDITOR'S NOTES.

is not accurate in thinking that the genuine Selkirk bannock,
a kind of cake-loaf of remarkable excellence, can be made
elsewhere than in the capital of his sheriffdom, the Forest.
There alone the art and mystery is preserved.

(u) p. 435. " Her winding sheet is up as high as her throat
already." This sign of dealh is discussed, with other pheno-
mena of the second sight, in notes on " A Legend of Montrose."
The shroud, thus seen, occurs in the Odyssey, where Theo-
clyraenus, the second- sighted man, says to the doomed wooers,
" Shrouded in night are your heads, and your shoulders and
your knees" (Odyssey, xx. 353, 354).

(v) p. 455. It seems to have escaped the notice of genea-
logists that Lady Stair, in a sense the original of Lady Ashton,
was a widow when she married the first Viscovint Stair. Her
first husband was Fergus Kennedy, as is alleged in the contract
of her second marriage, dated Balcarrie, Sept. 20, 1643.

Andrew Lang.

March 1893.

1

Complete in Twenty-four Volumes. Crown 8vo, tastefully bound
in greeti cloth, gilt. Price 3^. bd. each.

In special cloth binding, flat backs, gilt tops. Supplied in
Sets only of 24 volumes. Price £/\ 4^.

Also an edition with all the 250 original etchinQs. In 24
volumes. Crown Zvo, gilt tops. bs. each.

OF THE

WAVERLEY NOVELS

EliITED WITH

INTRODUCTORY ESSAYS AND NOTES

BY

ANDREW LANG

Supplementing those of the Author.

ll'^iik Two Hundred and Fifty New and Original Illustrations
by Eminent Artists.

BY the kind permission of the Hon. Mrs. Maxwell^
Scott, of Abbotsford, the great-granddaughter of Sir
Walter, the MSS. and other material at Abbotsford
were examined by Mr. Andrew Lang during the preparation
of his Introductory Essays and Notes to the Series, so that
the Border Edition may be said to contain all the results
of the latest researches as to the composition of the Waverley
Novels.

MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED
St. Mariin's Street, W.C.

Some Press Notices of the Border Edition of
the Waverley Novels

Edited by ANDREW LANG

TIMES. — " It would be difficult to find in these days a more com-
petent and sympailiciic editor of Scott than his countryman, the brilliant
and versatile man of letters who has undertaken the task, and if any proof
were wanted either of his qualifications or of his skill and discretion in
displaying them, Mr. Lang has furnished it abundantly in his charming
Introduction to 'Waverley.' The editor's own notes are judiciously sparing,
but conspicuously to the point, and they are very discreetly separated from
those of the author, Mr. Lang's laudable purpose being to illustrate and
explain Scott, not to make the notes a pretext for displaying his own
critical faculty and literary erudition. The illustrations by various competent
hands are beautiful in themselves and beautifully executed, and, altogether,
the ' Border Edition ' of the Waverley Novels bids fair to become the
classical edition of the great Scottish classic."

SPECTATOR.— "^Ve trust that this fine edition of our greatest and
most poetical of novelists will attain, if it has not already done so, the high
popularity it deserves. To all Scott's lovers it is a pleasure to know that,
despite the daily and weekly inrush of ephemeral fiction, the sale of his
works is said by the booksellers to rank next below Tennyson's in poetry,
and above that of everybody else in prose."

A THENAlUM. — " The handsome 'Border Edition' has been brought
to a successful conclusion. The publisher deserves to be complimented
on the manner in which the edition has been printed and illustrated, and
Mr. Lang on the way in which he has performed his portion of the work.
His introductions have been tasteful and readable ; he has not overdone
his part ; and, while he has supplied much useful information, he has by no
means overburdened the volumes with notes."

NOTES AND ^^/^AV^.S'.—" This spirited and ambitious enterprise
has been conducted to a safe termination, and the most ideal edition of the
Waverley Novels in existence is now completed."

SATURDAY REVIEW.— "■ Ol all the many collections of the
Waverley Novels, the ' Border Edition' is incomparably the most handsome
and the most desirable. . . . Type, paper, illustrations, are altogether
admirable."

MAGAZINE OE ART.— "Size, type, p.-iper, and printing, to say
nothing of the excessively liberal antl charming introduction of the illustra-
tions, make this perhaps the most desirable edition of Scott ever issued on
this side of the Border."

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with it, as to paper, type, or arrangement."

London: MACMILLAN AND CO., Ltd.

i

University of British Columbia Library

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